Try our new info resource - "Aladdin's Cave" (Main menu)Just added a separate link to Ash's Dropbox thread (shortcut)
I think it's a measure of how people are willing to approach things on this site that you can discuss areas like this. On some car sites it'd be met with a rider of not working on critical things like brakes and advising to only buy and replace components.Agree with you Trigger, I was wondering after posting if I should've covered more of the system. So at the risk of boring everyone I'll make some additional points.Quite often people assemble the caliper by using brake fluid to ease the piston past the seal but this leaves fluid on the outside of the seal which doesn't protect it. The caliper should be clean and dry, use the brake system grease to lubricate the seal and the piston should just push in with your fingers. When you then fill the completed system, the fluid is only on the correct side of the seal and helps to avoid corrosion. The master cylinder is obviously another part critical to decent operation. The seals there have different functions which are not readily observed. When you first start to move the lever the fluid will try to go out via the easiest route from the piston chamber, this tries to exit into the reservoir. The first seal operation is to close off that route and if the part of the seal that completes that function is impaired then more of the lever stroke is used before the brake line is pressurised. The seals when they get older and less squishy just don't do that so well, they get there but the lever travel is long as the seal requires the line pressure to build up as it's closing to assist 100% closing. This results in the lever coming too close to the bars and a critical feeling of delay to the rider.The hole into the reservoir is also an area to look at. If it's partially blocked then two affects are possible, when you release the brake after use the hole is opened to allow the reserve fluid to refill any space in the brake line that has been created by pad wear. It's this aspect that makes disc brakes essentially self adjusting (discounting the screw adjust on the Honda caliper) and resets the lever position each time to give a good lever feel. It also makes the system hard to blead as quick replenishment of the line doesn't take place with the fluid in the line just being pushed down and then pulled back again as you release the lever. Second effect is that the hole is mostly blocked and as a bit of heat comes into the brake system during use, then the fluid can't expand anywhere so the pads are held against the disc and more heat is created (you often see this on rear disc brake systems as they are just not used at the frequency of the front) this will if not corrected end up looking the brake on.Piston material in the caliper has an impact on longer term use as well. The corrosion of piston and bore is mostly caused by galvanic reaction ( one material electroplating from another when submerged in an electrolyte solution) in this case the electrolyte solution would be salt water. Even if you use a stainless steel piston the two materials still appear with a difference on the galvanic scale which doesn't stop the problem. There are I believe phenolic resin pistons available for these calipers which are obviously not metal so long term use of this type I think should be considered two best look after the original caliper material. If you use them all year round and expose them to salty roads then you are probably looking at a strip down every 24months at a guess. This is alot of calipers nowadays have an additional seal outboard of the main one to keep that area as clean as possible.I know they won't match modern systems for braking power but set up as intended they are alot better than most people indicate.
Should have put the sprouts on last week if you want them done properly by Xmas day 😁😁😁