Having discovered that my front caliper pads are binding, the caliper has been stripped and cleaned and put back together. Unfortunately, bleeding is proving a real headache. Lots of pumping and leaving with the caliper above the master cylinder and still no go. Problem is the proper bleed nipple is well and truly seized in and I do not want to apply too much pressure in case it snaps off. Well not until I have another alternative. Is there another caliper or better option that may be recommended, please? 

There are banjo bolts complete with bleed nipples available. This would probably be the cheapest fix.

Reggies idea above would be the easiest option, but if you want to remove the nipple, you can try heating up the caliper a little, then attempt to remove the nipple. Pretty sure it is an M6 x 1.0 thread. If it snaps, they usually neck off flush with the caliper body, you can very carefully drill the remains out, following the same angle as the thread, with a 5mm dia drill bit. Then you can recover the thread with an M6 x 1 tap. Done this a few times over the years and turned out ok, just need to be careful when drilling. The nipple has a taper at the end which seals off against a taper inside the caliper, be careful not to damage the caliper taper seating area.

You can buy stainless steel nipples from an auto brake shop, all sorts of different lengths and types, best to take the caliper in to check them out.

Bye, PeterB.

A 2001 bike should be fitted with the Hebo type 4 pot caliper, A 2 pot Grimeca/AJP/Brembo will fit, Also the 4 pot AJP will also bolt straight on.

 

Failing that it can be blead by cracking off the banjo bolt, A bit messy but will work.

Find a nut that just drops over the bleed nipple and then get someone to weld the nut to the nipple, it usually then unscrews easily. The extreme heat of the weld undoes the seize. Put PTFE tape on the new nipple and only tighten it lightly to prevent seizure in future.

It already has the banjo fitted but still proving a pain to bleed. I have given it over to a local shop as at the moment I haven't got the time to mess as we are moving house soon. He says he is reluctant to try too hard although if the nipple snaps then the drilling should be an option. I says he has tried a bit of heat and tried back bleeding with a syringe.

Yes it has the Hebo calipers, so would the AJP be a better replacement option as a worse case scenario with the current caliper?

The AJP/Braktec would be a good swap and work better than the Hebo one. The Hebo calipers are no longer available. From memory the Hebo caliper has quite a large bleed nipple, M12 or 10 I think so it should come out intact with a bit of elbow grease.

Find a nut that just drops over the bleed nipple and then get someone to weld the nut to the nipple, it usually then unscrews easily. The extreme heat of the weld undoes the seize. Put PTFE tape on the new nipple and only tighten it lightly to prevent seizure in future.

This is a great technique that I've used loads at work I usually build up a nipple first if it's snapped off then weld the nut to that, also works on headstock races that have no lip to hit against, just hit it with the mig in a couple of places and cool rapidly and they just fall out as it shrinks the race

Edited November 29, 201510 yr by hulmie