Shimano caliper rebuild

Halfway through bleeding, something burst/split/cracked in the caliper and oil leaked all over the floor. Looking at this M985 document from shimano, it looks like there’s no caliper/piston rebuild kit. Can anyone confirm or help, please? Do I have to buy a whole new caliper?

Yupp you do cos no there aint

Or warranty it if under. 2 yo as long as you’ve used proper shimano oil. They can tell if not.

Nope. You can’t get rebuild kits for Shimano (or Magura) you have to buy a new calliper.
That said, RRP on a basic shimano calliper is £25 and it comes with pads, so there really would be no point anyway.

EDIT
The internals of lower spec callipers fit the more expensive ones, by the way.

Does that mean I can buy a deore caliper and fit the piston and seals into the xtr? M985 has a 22mm piston so my first thought, without googleresearch is that it might be a bit more complicated.

Some of them, yeah, you can do that I believe, I’ve seen it mentioned somewhere, but I’m not sure what’s compatible with what…..

I wouldn’t bother, personally, I’d just get a new/used calliper and stick it on. Way too much faffing about rebuilding it.

Thank you PP. I’ll pump the pistons right out and see what it looks like inside, but sounds like a new caliper is the line of least resistance.

I can’t speak for the latest range but older Shimanos were 100% compatible (I put an XTR piston into an XT caliper frinstance) Lots of interchangability.

If it’s an M985, should it not still be in warranty?

2nd hand.

I’ve not tested it with brakes, but if you have a local industrial seal supplier, I would guess there’s a fair chance that you’ll be able to match replacement seals with their help. I did this with a manitou Nixon to keep it alive after they stopped supporting the fork. It cost me about £10 for the air spring and damper seals AFAIR.

140 quid brake and you can’t get the parts to service it.

lol, great purchase there.

A little google suggests that the deore brakes use the same pistons- though not decisively. Personally I would buy this:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-deore-m615-disc-brake-caliper/rp-prod112313

And then measure it and if it’s not the same bore, send it back. £21 for a full caliper rebuild kit with new pistons, and a spare set of pads, is not to be sniffed at 😉 You can get them for less but CRC are easy to deal with if it doesn’t work out, free return postage etc.

I know this is an old thread now.
In my search for a solution to fix a leaky caliper, I came across this;

http://www.enarubber.com/pdf/material-selection-guide.pdf

Nitrile rubber seals are readily available. Could be useful to someone.

I know there are those who’d just go and buy a new caliper, but I like to fix things 😀

a square seal is easy to get….

how ever the shimano/magura have a lip edge on the seal and square seals do not work – they need the seal…..

i had a friend who works at rubber atkins up here look into it for me and iirc wysiwyg looked into it as well ….

no dice.

3 scrap XT brakes in my parts bin….and 1 fully working but CBA with the hassle of when it does go … i just put hopes fully maintainable systems on my bikes.

Trail_rat, I work in the rubber industry and depending on the shape can machine up a compression mould.

ill happily pull a seal and send it to for you if you want to look into it for others.

Oofff!

£75 odd for a caliper, I’d be tempted to buy an M785 for more like ~£35 and “make do” for a bit, then pop the pistons out of the XTR, measure them and see if you can find a match from Brammer or someone…

Edit: just noticed the dates… sorry.

Although its probably worth looking into the possibilities for making up replacement seal kits for Shimano brakes in general, there has to be enough demand out there I reckon…

I recently pulled my M785 caliper apart for a clean & service, and unlike the older models that i’d previously stripped, they now have square seals. There’s still the issue of damaged pistons, but replacement seals now look viable.

Just had a Google. There are a few mtbr threads where people have dissassbled newer model deore and slx calipers, looks like most use square section seals, I’m off to the garage to pull apart a couple of older deores, just out of curiosity really.

Anyone else taken a shimano caliper to bits for the sake of it? I’m curious about the dims, wondering just how much the pistons and seals differ from model to model…

Tom_W1987 – Member
140 quid brake and you can’t get the parts to service it.

lol, great purchase there.

Lol, poor troll there 😐

Trial Rat, can you take some photographs?
Oh, just noticed you haven’t broken them down yet.
If anyone has photos of the seals, can you let me have them. I’d like to see what I’m up against.

Well, this is timely as I’ve just popped a seal in my front SLX M666 calliper. Rather disheartening to read that seals are not readily available. I’m all for fixing the b*gger. I’ll disassemble and get some pics up…

Here you go. Stripped one calliper but broke the ceramic piston in the other trying to grip it.

AFAIK the seal is a square one with no discernible lips on it. I’d be tempted to say that this would be sourceable….

Worth it though? Im all for fixing stuff, but as PP posted, a whole calliper with fresh pads is less than other brands rebuild kits!

Last year CRC were selling deore brakes for £15 each, at that price its barely worth changeing the pads let alone calliper seals.

Shimano don’t supply re-build kits because they don’t want the hassle when it goes wrong. It’s the same deal with original equipment on cars – the original manufacturer of the car and the calipers don’t offer seal kits because people do it wrong and then try to claim on the Warranty.

I’d buy a new caliper – it’s easier and also safer.

yeah. new calliper for about 25 including new pad- just go for that.

I hate to admit it, however you guys are probably right.

On Chainreaction right now
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/shimano-deore-disc-brake-caliper-m596/rp-prod67226
£21
Probably couldn’t get a rebuild kit for much less!

Just watch on the caliper you go for has the same hose fitting. The m615 screws straight in which is fine for older brakes but don’t the newer higher level ones have banjo fittings.
Not an issue if you are harvesting the pistons.