Steel brake pistons. How to protect them?

[cardiffrob]

Hello.

I've just had to buy yet another set of Type 14 Girling calipers (Marina/Spitfire etc) after stripping the thread out of the bleed nipple. I bought some brand new non-recon ones which come with mild steel plated pistons rather than stainless. Is there anything worth trying to protect the pistons from the almost inevitable corrosion? Not a friendly environment for them, I guess.

Ta.

Rob

Surrounded by a moat of DOT 5.1

 

[rikrobson]

They should have rubber gaiters on them between the body og the calliper anf the lip of the piston. This should protect the sides when they are out of the calliper. They do tend to rip though and then let the water/salt etc in.

 

[CompoSimmonite]

You could apply a small amount of rubber grease under the gaiter.
Seeing they are new bodies you could always buy stainless pistons and fit them yourself then sell the unused chromed pistons to recoup some of the outlay.

 

[Robotstar5]

Smear of red rubber grease round the exposed part of the pistons?

 

[richie00boy]

I bought stainless bleed nipples for my astra project off eBay. You may be able to get them for your calipers too.

 

[Pete.]

Why not just turn some new pistons from stainless steel? They can't be a complicated shape surely?

 

[cardiffrob]

All these type 14s have an exposed 2 or 3mm of exposed rim beyond the seal. I'll slap some red grease on them. I just thought it would melt away after the first heavy braking and contaminate things. If I ever need to renew the seals on these then I'll get some stainless pistons too.

Thanks, everyone.

 

[Cobbler]

I've fitted a few seal kits recently & the rubber grease seems to be old hat now. The seal kits I've used came from Big Red & they supply silicone grease in the kits. I tried to get some of the red rubber grease a while ago & got the classic storeman reaction of sucking through the teeth & "I don't think you can get it any more"

The silicone seems to be unaffected by the brake fluid, whereas the red stuff I've used seem to dissolve on contact with the fluid. I think anything you smear on the exposed part of the piston is likely to melt with the heat, I don't know whether silicone melts though, but I think it would attract all the brake dust & crud & cause more problems than it would solve.

 

[The_Yellow_Ardvark]

http://www.frost.co.uk/red-rubber-grease-500g.html
Link to Frost for red rubber grease. I got mine from a Agi Place.
But it is available.

 

[Robotstar5]

Got mine from fleabay

 

[mangocrazy]

I'd be tempted to get the pistons electroless nickel plated. It would only add a few microns to the dimensions and give good corrosion protection. ENP is also very 'slippy' which is handy for brake pistons.

 

[tinman123]

if there was stainless pistons on the old calipers could you swap them over for the ms ones?.

the pistons on my cruiser failed a few years ago ( a common problem ) they seized up.
recon ones were only replacing what i originally had so i bought new oem ones which were made right, after they realized the blunder they originally made.
the fix was a spiral type stainless ring that sealed the boot to its groove, something the old ones were missing.
anyways many years on and its seemed to have solved the problem.
so imo a bit of silicone grease and some carefully placed cable ties might just keep the evil out.