GT6 front brake caliper rubber seal

[Ken Young]

I have been rebuilding the front brake calipers on my 1967 GT6.  I am trying to find a way to install the rubber dust seal in place. It has a rim that fits into a groove a the top of the cylinder and I cannot find a way to refit it.  This must be a common problem. Is there a neat way of doing it.  

Thanks

ken

[Nick Jones]

Ah, the good ol' 16P....... they are a sod to do!  So much so that Girling upgraded them to the 16PB that has an altogether more friendly arrangement.

They are possible to do without using any exotic tools...... there is a knack, which you will have more or less acquired by piston number 4 and will certainly forget long before you have to do another.

I have done quite a few of these over the years and always get pretty frustrated for the first couple at least.  I think what I usually end up doing is to get the seal lip properly into the groove in the caliper body (make sure it it goes all the way home - you may need to dig some more crud out of the bottom of the groove first!), then sit the piston on top at a bit of an angle and use a couple of small, blunt screwdrivers  to lift the top lip of the seal so it sits around the side of the piston.  The first 75% is fairly easy, then you have to start stretching things and they fight back.  I think I shift the piston around to trap the side that is already on.  Once you've managed to work it onto the piston wall all the way around you've basically won but some care is still needed.  Push the piston slowly into the caliper making sure that the dust seal keeps sliding up as you go.  Use the screwdriver to ease it up if it tries to follow the piston down.

A little red rubber grease on the main caliper seal helps the final part.

Good luck.....  :)

Nick

[markcro]

A total bugger as you end up fluting around for ages. But it is all just down to knack and cursing alot!  :P

[Dan16v]

markcro wrote:

A total bugger as you end up fluting around for ages. But it is all just down to knack and cursing alot!  :P

I accidentally pulled one off this afternoon, after much swearing, the only way I found to get it to go back on was to push the piston back as far as it would go and this then holds the seal on fairly well and stops it moving around while your trying to put the wire on, then used a pair of pliers to stretch the wire out and on it went....I will be more careful next time to not pull one off!

[Nick Jones]

6838 wrote:

I accidentally pulled one off this afternoon, after much swearing, the only way I found to get it to go back on was to push the piston back as far as it would go and this then holds the seal on fairly well and stops it moving around while your trying to put the wire on, then used a pair of pliers to stretch the wire out and on it went....I will be more careful next time to not pull one off!

If it's got a wire clip on it then it is the later 16PB caliper.  They are MUCH easier.  You just put the piston in all the way fit the dust seal and then the clip.

Nick

[Dan16v]

Nick_Jones wrote:

If it's got a wire clip on it then it is the later 16PB caliper.  They are MUCH easier.  You just put the piston in all the way fit the dust seal and then the clip.

Nick

yep, that sounds like the one

[Ken Young]

Thanks for the help Nick. I found it very helpful. The hardest thing without question is to get the dust seal to sit in the groove properly. As a note for anyone else, I found it useful to smear a small amount of washing up liquid on the dust seal mating lip prior to fitting. It helped it to slide into the groove. Also, once the dust seal is in position, run your finger around the seal mating rim from the inside to bed it into the slot properly prior to inserting the piston.
Another trick I learned in this exercise was to use a bike pump with a lilo attachment roughly pushed into the brake pipe threaded hole to push the pistons out. Simple, quick and effective. Prior to that I was trying to manhandle them out with 2 screwdrivers in the groove. Not recommended.