Have noticed recently a squeal from the front brakes getting progressively worse and last night with the front wheel off the ground tried to spin the front wheel and it would barely move. Whipped the front pads out and the wheel spins so no wheel bearing problem or worse but the brakes were obviously binding pretty badly so I'm going to give em a damn good clean. I was just wondering what everyone's weapon of choice is for cleaning, going to use sandpaper to deglaze the pads and clean the discs. Calipers pretty bogged with baked on brake dust and old copper grease, was thinking of getting in there with some specialist brake cleaner and a toothbrush. Does anyone use anything else, I've read you should avoid WD40 like the plague as it can penetrate the seals causing more problems but others swear by it, what do other people use, any handy hints, don't really want to remove the calipers/strip and re-seal unless I have to. Also going to replace brake fluid but I think that's pretty straight forward.
Clean the calipers with high quality brake cleaner and a Scotchpad (green nylon pad), it will not damage the pistons, put a single pad in between pistons or piece of wood etc and bring pistons out until the clean part is visible, obviously care needed not to pop them out completely, clean with the cleaner, pad and toothbrush, use bent nosed pliers or similiar inside piston recesses to turn piston in bore so you can clean whole surface. Make sure all areas of caliiper are clean including pad pins. Smear pistons lightly in red rubber grease , this is a vegetable based grease for use on brake components, does not contaminate fluid, and lubricates the dust seals (often a prime cause of dragging brakes), but does not dry them out or make them swell. Lightly coat any contact edges of pads and pad pins with waterproof grease, not thickly and not near pad surface. I use a pad pusher to push all the pistons back in together, often helps just releasing the master cylinder cap, take care not to push fluid over the top and onto bike Obviously all the above assumes you have the mechanical skills and confidence to undertake the work on your brakes, if not get someone to do it who does. (Thats the disclaimer )
Put the bent nose of the pliers into the piston recess, open the pliers so they make contact with the piston and gently turn the piston, so that you can clean all around it. Sort of self explanatory when you actually do it.
