Bought a pair of rear calipers for use in the spring, so until then, can I just leave the calipers as is in the garage? Or will the lack of fluid start rusting on the inside?

 

I would wrap in an old towel and lubricate with something. Maybe regular oil so it doesnt rust and then clean them when the time comes. Come to think about it I have my old rear calipers in the garage. Im not used to it getting cold. Gotta check on them.

 

Ya, they are wrapped in plastic in a box. Do you mean lube the inside? As in fill it with oil? Or even brake fluid?

 

Not fill with oil. Just a light coating on the piston and area around.Yes lube the inside and around the lip.

 

OK, so no need to worry about the piston internals rusting? I mean w/o fluid it is exposed to oxygen....?

 

To be honest I dont know. Was just trying to give a little input. I would think as you said the internals are open to oxygen and have a possibility of rust. Just worried of getting oil in there and then having a hard time getting it out. If you think you could do a little coating and be able to get it out of the inside. Might be good as well.

 

How about cutting the oxygen supply and blocking off the air by putting a little silicone paste on the openings of the valves?

 

run some brake fluid through the caliper if it's completely dry.. close off bleeder screw and then cover the brake inlet with something- tape or whatever.
then spray the outside with a thin layer of metal protectant or grease on all of the external bare metal surfaces.

 

Thanks for the help Matt and redls1

But another question, if I am going to get the caliper powder coated, should I do it prior to a rebuild or after?

 

...^ wouldn't you want to do it AFTER so that it reduces the chances of knicking them during the rebuild...?

 

Ya that's what I thought too. But if baking to cure the powder, won't the caliper have to be bare i.e. no pistons or seals or boots?

Sorry for the n00bie questions.

 

on that one...I was just answering the questions that seemed more "logical" to me, and that one^^^ I'm not too sure about

 

yes.
best way is to pull the pistons and all rubber seals and etc out of caliper before coating. insert a 10mm x 1.0mm bolt into both bleeder screw and brake line fitting to keep powder out of threads.
tape off inside of piston holes & etc to make sure no powder in there (generally let the coaters worry about taping it off.. they've done it before and know what to do).

when you get them back, buy a caliper rebuild kit and install new seals and such in it. lube the inside of the caliper with brake fluid, as per the directions. reassemble.
clean any brake fluid off powdercoating, and then coat bare metal piston surface with some grease to prevent rust (it really doesn't matter since nobody will see it, but if it makes you feel better then do it.)

that's about it.

 

Great, thanks for the info.

Now off to find someone locally to rebuild the calipers

 

front calipers are easy. rear calipers aren't hard, but they're a pain.