82 GS650GL Front Brake Caliper

[DrDankNuggs]

OK, Ive successfully rebuild the rear master & caliper now I'm onto the front which has been a little more frustrating the front master is seized pressurized with air after soaking and still won't budge so I've got a new master on the way.

Now to the real issue at hand, finding a Front caliper rebuild kit. Ive ordered 2 from eBay claiming to be the correct kit, but both times they were too small. Does anyone have a source I could get a kit from? If not it looks like I can buy the individual parts from bike bandit as a last resort. Im so close to getting this on the road I can feel the bugs hitting my face! however not the type to run on one brake so this is one of the last problems needing solving! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[LAB3]

A quick look shows that caliper being a pretty rare one, rare meaning it came on only one other bike, the 1980 550L. It could be the path of least resistance is to go with individual pieces direct from Suzuki to find what you need. Being a cheap b#$&@rd I'd get the part numbers and search eBay to get a better price. The actual parts themselves usually won't be much different, it's the shipping that usually gets ya'.

[Rich82GS750TZ]

partsoutlaw.com always has $4.99 shipping with a code on the top of their page. My most recent order took 12 days to deliver. But my base gasket and breather gasket (literally the first and last gaskets that I need to finish by engine rebuild) are backordered. But that's probably the same story all over.

It does look like the piston and some other parts are NLA.

[salty_monk]

A quick look shows that caliper being a pretty rare one, rare meaning it came on only one other bike, the 1980 550L. It could be the path of least resistance is to go with individual pieces direct from Suzuki to find what you need. Being a cheap b#$&@rd I'd get the part numbers and search eBay to get a better price. The actual parts themselves usually won't be much different, it's the shipping that usually gets ya'.

Do you have a place to cross reference the different model calipers? I thought all the L model calipers were the same but something turned up in the Twinpot upgrade recently (where a forum member here says he has used L model calipers on a G fork which I didn't think was possible...). An easy source to cross reference would be really helpful....

[Nessism]

OK, Ive successfully rebuild the rear master & caliper now I'm onto the front which has been a little more frustrating the front master is seized pressurized with air after soaking and still won't budge so I've got a new master on the way.

Now to the real issue at hand, finding a Front caliper rebuild kit. Ive ordered 2 from eBay claiming to be the correct kit, but both times they were too small. Does anyone have a source I could get a kit from? If not it looks like I can buy the individual parts from bike bandit as a last resort. Im so close to getting this on the road I can feel the bugs hitting my face! however not the type to run on one brake so this is one of the last problems needing solving! Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Why aftermarket ebay parts when OEM is available and often cheaper?

[Grimly]

Do you have a place to cross reference the different model calipers? I thought all the L model calipers were the same but something turned up in the Twinpot upgrade recently (where a forum member here says he has used L model calipers on a G fork which I didn't think was possible...). An easy source to cross reference would be really helpful....

I've got L calipers on my G.
Only difference was the bracket, which is awaiting my eventual usage of the L-style longer forks. For that, I'll have to find another matching bracket.

In other words, the caliper itself was common to a wide range of early 80s GSs, but the fixing bracket differed.

[DrDankNuggs]

Why aftermarket ebay parts when OEM is available and often cheaper?

Well, I decided to just order the 2 parts for the caliper from Bike Bandit, the piston was in good shape so I should be ok there.
As far as the aftermarket I was speaking about the front master which is not available as new oem component. The piston is seized inside the old master so I'm wondering peoples experience with some aftermarket/non oem options. I can take my chances on an original used older unit sold on eBay then rebuild, but are there any new alternatives that anyone has experience with?

[Grimly]

I'm using Honda NTV650 brake master cylinders on all my bikes now - made by Nissin, so good quality OEM stuff.
That's a 5/8" m.c. suitable for twin calipers.
If you have a single caliper you'll need a different size.

The aftermarket cheapy stuff is not something I want to trust my life to.

[LAB3]

Do you have a place to cross reference the different model calipers? I thought all the L model calipers were the same but something turned up in the Twinpot upgrade recently (where a forum member here says he has used L model calipers on a G fork which I didn't think was possible...). An easy source to cross reference would be really helpful....

Here's what I do. Find a parts seller with the Suzuki parts fische on line, I use the Babbitts.com website.

Find your part number from the fische and copy it. Now go to the general Suzuki parts page on that site, the page has a box where you can search by parts number at the bottom. Paste the number in that box and hit search.

The search result will show the name of the part, to the right in red letters it says "where used" Click on that link and it'll show all the applications for that part number.

While it's still on the clipboard, I'll also do a general Google search to find the best price and also an eBay search of that part number, this is usually the best place to find the lowest price.

[Nessism]

Many times it's not worth the hassle of trying to rebuild a master because the bore corrodes. It's easier to just find a replacement. Twin disc GS's use 5/8" bore master cylinders so just look for something decent on ebay and don't look back.

[salty_monk]

Thanks Dave, that's what I thought.

Thanks for the cross ref info also.

[tom203]

I’d take a chance on this item.....you might get lucky for $20

https://www.ebay.com/itm/193378938809

[Nessism]

I’d take a chance on this item.....you might get lucky for $20
https://www.ebay.com/itm/193378938809

Cheap, but you still need to take it apart and clean it and replace seals.