impossible task of fitting rubber boot to brake caliper

[Jonesz]

So first a disclaimer: "I am in no way a brake caliper specialist"! When I recently did the front calipers on my 79 GS850 it took me at at least an hour and a half trying to get the dust boots in place and the piston mounted afterwards to do the first one. I put the second one aside and did it the next day. When looking at the boot retainer I noticed that the material was different than the caliper so I gently took a flat blade screwdriver and very carefully pried the retainer up and out. I then put it in the seal and pushed the retainer with the rubber seal back into the caliper with my fingers, then merely got ahold of the rubber seal and pulled it up and around the piston, pushed the piston in and the seal snapped into place on the piston. Whole procedure took maybe 5 minutes and a lot less frustration and curse words. Hope this makes sense

[Chancho196]

For the front calipers, the rubber goes on the inside of the cylinder. On the rear it goes on the outside.

Bit of a fumble, but will stay in place if the rubbers are new.

[DaveWatts]

Ok, I managed to get the boots on today (the snow has melted so it gave me a bit of encouragement). My technique was in the end, put boots on piston, make sure that they are the right way round and that they expand properly (because if the top lip is trapped inside it won't come out again. Then put the piston against the inner seal and with all my fingers trying to clamp the bottom lip and work it round the circle, eventually work the lip over the outer edge. Then when that's done push the piston past the seal a bit, then side the top lip up to the piston groove. I think a lot of my problem was because the external groove had filled up with road gunge (thanks previous owner for running it without a boot!).

Cheers

Dave