Dust seals!!!

[persiflage]

Many years on from my last brake overhaul; I am struggling to seat the dust seals and spring rings on the front calipers ... don't laugh! ( I remember it was a pain last time)

Any hints?

[AussieJohn]

Hold the closed side of the ring [opposite the ends of the ring] in position then flex each side into position; it is easier to do having the ring ends on the more open side of the caliper.

[69S4]

I was doing this a couple of weeks ago and struggled for ages with circlip pliers and all sorts of gadgetry - to no avail. Eventually brute force won the day. The ends of the clips will seat against each other, making it larger in diameter. Not large enough to go over the dust seal but it's a starting point.

Put one side of the clip on gently, hold it in position with your thumb and then pull the other side back (so as to increase the diameter). I can only hold this for a second or two but that's long enough to seat it. It's difficult to explain in words but the whole thing shouldn't take more than a few seconds to do.

[persiflage]

Job done

Thanks for the input ...

You know how you get fixated on the task at hand? After several hours struggling with one pot ... I decided to try another one. Job done in 5 mins!
The piston in the troublesome pot had not gone fully home which resulted in the dust seal not sitting pretty over the flange, hence the struggle to stretch the seal down and fit the ring. I remembered it being a pain ... but not this much
Moral of the story: Walk away ... have a cuppa and approach from a different direction!

[jgrover]

I was having the same trouble - spent an hour swearing, sweating and gouging bits out of my fingers trying to fit seals to the callipers from my '73 Sprint.

I read this forum, but nothing I had not tried - then I thought why not try something else - so I did!

The problem is seems is how to hold the seal in place while fitting the circlip. It takes two hands to hold the seal in place and there isn't room for three hands anyway, so I thought maybe the seal would sit in place if it had NOT been fitted in the groove in the piston! Why not? lets try it.

IT WORKS!

Push the piston all the way in, then push the seal over it and the lip will sit on the body and stay there, then fit circlip, then ease the top of the seal into the piston groove with something pointed. I reckon this works because having the seal NOT sitting in the piston groove forces the inner part of the seal out a little and so it is parallel to the mating face that you are trying to fit the circlip around. This should also work if you had the piston out by say 10 mm so the seal could definitely not sit in the piston groove.

Ta Da!

Anyway, whatever - it works