GS550E Front and Rear Brake Caliper rebuild kit

[MikeinSaudi]

If you need new pistons go stainless and they're done forever.

Thanks Hog, i'll check that out

[cowboyup3371]

Mike, if you look real close you'll see the left side of my twinpot calipers from a Ninja 650 (I have the MC from one as well). Someone had already swapped my stock single caliper set up for a dual caliper before I got the bike and I installed Salty Monk's adapters to it in 2011 or so

Antiquity by Scott Baker, on Flickr

[MikeinSaudi]

Mike, if you look real close you'll see the left side of my twinpot calipers from a Ninja 650

Thanks Cowboy, (Scott)

I am actively considering this but rapidly running out of time at home before re-deploying back to Saudi later this month. Trying really hard to get the bike rideable before i go, managed to get it to start last weekend and have a buddy coming round tomorrow to help me progress with the electrics. I may have to leave any further upgrades until it get home next time...maybe January or February.

oh....(pause for effect) and God bless Chris Ledoux!

[steveb922]

The earlier calipers fitted my 1980 perfectly - so you could use the later style on your 78 if you wanted. Straight swap.

[MikeinSaudi]

The earlier calipers fitted my 1980 perfectly - so you could use the later style on your 78 if you wanted. Straight swap.

Thanks Steve, will look into that next trip home, running out of time now!

[MikeinSaudi]

Hi guys,

Quick update and request for further help.

I sent my 3 callipers off to be professionally refurbished by a company in England. They were great, really responsive and replied with this:
DD119A1E-DC3E-4938-A403-AB244260FB64 by Mike Balmer, on Flickr

And this message:

Mike, We have received your calipers and I am looking to book them in. Not good news I’m afraid, these calipers are in a really poor state. The front 2 calipers have had the bleed screws snapped and masked off. The banjo bolts in there are standard banjos and you cannot bleed the system through there. We could provide banjo bolts with bleed screws, but the calipers would have to be bled off the bike as the bleed screw needs to be the highest part of the caliper, and the banjos sit at the lower end when they’re mounted.

The rear caliper has 1 snapped bleed screw, which means that you will never be able to get the air out of that side of the caliper.

We could try and do our best with these calipers, but to be honest we’d be uncomfortable with this as we would never view them as safe – as there would be trapped air which will mean that you will never get a good hard safe lever.

I think your best option by far is to scan ebay and try and buy a set in better condition than these. You can then forward them to us and we can refurbish them properly and ensure that they are safe to use. We could keep hold of these for the time being as we may find that these brackets are in better condition than the ones you purchase online.

I’ve attached a photo of your calipers and arrowed where the bleed screws should be, just for reference.

********************************

So i am back on the market for 3 new callipers! I found this on ebay: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1983-SUZU...0AAOSwvCRe4UVT

and he appears to have the rear calliper too.

Do you guys think this would work? Or do you have a better solution, remember i am trying to rebuild to a ridable bike not refurbish to original.

I am currently back in Saudi Arabia, hope to be returning home at the end of the month for 3 weeks holiday, and a key goal during this break will be to try and get the bike out for a ride - maybe not road-legal but ridable. So i am up against the clock a bit. Grateful for any help or advice guys.

regards

Mike

[steveb922]

What they have told you is accurate as regards the bleed screws and how they operate. It is possible to remove broken bleed screws, but tricky. One option is to weld a small nut to the exposed part, but yours have snapped flush. The other option is to drill them out, but you need to be very precise. Probably a job best left to a machine shop.

The calipers in your link are not the correct ones. They are from what we would call a GSX550 - for some reason Suzuki just used the GS 550 designation for the US market. Your best options are to try to find a set of calipers over here, or search on here for 'salty monk brake conversion'. The conversion allows you to use more modern discs and calipers with your existing forks.

[MikeinSaudi]

Hi Steve,

Thanks mate, you have saved me wasting more money there. I think i will have to look again at the salty monk solution. Just want to have 'a solution' in place for when i get home so that i can make some more progress on the build.

Hope you are well Steve.

m

[steveb922]

All good here thanks Mike. I'll have a look to see what's available over here when I get a minute. Unfortunately I only have spares for the earlier model at the moment, and that's nowhere near a complete set.

Hope you're enjoying the warmth over there, if nothing else!

[hampshirehog]

These are on ebay from an 850 but will plug straight on: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suzuki-Gs...QAAOSweDpf~ecD

From a 650 - again plug and play: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suzuki-GS...gAAOSwg2RfQ~FG

This will fit the rear: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Suzuki-GS...wAAOSwo5ddIv4z

[MikeinSaudi]

All good here thanks Mike.

Hope you're enjoying the warmth over there, if nothing else!

As ever Steve i appreciate your help mate, as for enjoying the heat....its 11C in the morning so its fleeces and coats, then in the afternoon it gets up to about 22C so 2xt-shirts needed to go outside to train after duty. Its amazing how the body gets used to the real heat here (40's and 50'sC in summer and high 30's most of the year) so that when the temperature 'plumes' to below 25 it feels really cold! Crazy!

[MikeinSaudi]

Hog,

Thanks mate, this is incredibly helpful of you and so generous to give your time like that to research these parts. I would not have known that these parts were interchangeable as i am so new to this bike so i just would not have been able to do this without your help.

I have bought the rear set and made an offer on the 650 front ones, i missed the 850's as the auction had ended when i logged back in this morning.

Again, really appreciate this mate.