Front brake woes

[Slide Panda]

So,what's so wrong if you pull the lever with the caliper off?

As mentioned, you can end up with the pads mashed together in the middle of the caliper - with no easy way to get them apart.  If you're careful some swearing and a putty knife will get some space bet ween the pads again.  But you've got to be careful or you can end up ruining the pads by gouging them or shearing off a chunk of the friction material. 

If you do something similar with the clutch slave off, you can end up popping the piston out of the slave body and next thing you know there's a puddle  of brake fluid all over

[dimk]

Thanks!

[uclabiker06]

Okay, maybe the thing that pierced the rubber boot in the picture is not the actual piston in the cylinder.  The reason I say this is because I did locate a circlip that is holding something back there; maybe that is the piston.

[Howie]

Mystery solved.  You are looking at the piston, but the part that extends beyond the circlip and accommodates the pushrod.  New dust cap, install and bleed you will be back in business.  Of course this assumes you didn't loose the little dowel that touches the plunger on the brake light switch.

[uclabiker06]

Okay, cool, now we're talking. Won't loose the dowel cuz its all loose parts are in a zip lock bag.  So can I just pull the old boot off and stuff a new one in there or do I have to open the cylinder up?

[Howie]

Okay, cool, now we're talking. Won't loose the dowel cuz its all loose parts are in a zip lock bag.  So can I just pull the old boot off and stuff a new one in there or do I have to open the cylinder up?

One can never be sure over the interweb, but I see no reason to.  Put the lever back on and if all feels good, bleed and you should be good to go.