From the not once but twice department comes a double-feature edition Tool of the Week. First, the answer to an inevitable query ahead of time. What is up with the blue gloves? The answer is of course is two-fold. The latex-nitrile gloves are good safety against automotive chemicals, as well as the never-dry undercoat that Mitsubishi sprayed all over the underside of the Starion. The secondary use of the gloves is to keep tar, gunk, and corrosive chemicals off the camera. The gloves come off for camera adjustments while shooting the step-by-steps. Brake fluid and cameras are an unfortunate combination. The bonus installment for this week comes courtesy of Justice Brothers Car Care Products. JB-80 not only helps loosen easy to shear off items like the brake bleeder screw shown here, but is also Twice as Good® for helping separate rusted fasteners.
I don’t care what penetrant you use. Nothing loosens a rusty brake bleeder. Sometimes heat (torch) but that’s it. I never had any luck with any penetrant on there.
Since we’re talking stubborn brake parts, I appeal to the mighty blue-gloved Clunkbucket Gods to help me with a problem: I’ve got a piston seized in a 26 year old caliper. It’s a fixed, dual-piston unit, and the other one pops right out by applying air pressure to the inlet.
I’ve tried an assortment of penetrating oils (PB Blaster being my poison of choice) and heating up the body of the caliper with a torch.
Any ideas?
Oh, Ye of little faith USA#1! Yes. We’re spoiled here in California as far as rust goes. That can of JB-80 has been with me for over a year, but does work great for nut and bolt pre-soak. Stubborn brake parts? If that caliper has got an aluminum piston corrosion problem try some ammonia, or a tap with a hammer.
You are spoiled there when it comes to corrosion, or lack of. Which I am jealous of.
I wear gloves for pretty much 75% of the work I do these days from pinstriping/airbrushing to turning my ignorant blissful wrench downstairs in the garage. You can get ’em in black and look all cool. White’s kinda gay, but works. Blue makes you looks like you know what your doing – “whoa, step back, that dude’s working on something important”! I’ll have to pick up some JB-80 and try it out. Thanks Mike.
Donny
Love em! If I’m going to be doing anything more serious than pouring in wiper fluid or checking the oil level I put these on, there’s always a box of ’em in my trunk. The last use of them that I discovered was wearing them while detailing the interior, even than was much more pleasant with these. They serve 3 functions for me, 1) easier cleanup afterwards, 2) chemical & abrasion protection and 3) you can get so much more grip on things like oil filters.
The trick with seized motorcycle pistons is to drill and tap the piston and screw a bolt in which pushes the piston out- could maybe fill hole with weld after, but replacing piston is better. Heat caliper in hot oven (200C) may help too as aluminum (caliper) expands much more than steel (piston).