Coroded brakes on GPZ750. Will other calipers fit?

This weekend I started rebuilding the ceased front brakes on the '82 GPZ750R1 I recently purchased. Once I got the pistons out, I could see there was quite a bit of corrosion on the inside of piston housing. I fear there is more corrosion than sanding can fix, and a local shop confirmed my conclusion. This leads me to my questions.

Are there any other more modern calipers that will fit a stock bike? It'd be nice to have a modern 2 or 3 piston brake.

If I'm stuck with stock KZ calipers, what other KZ model and year brakes are identical to the '82 GPZ750's? I will probably go to ebay and just buy the newest used calipers that look the most well taken care of should this be my only option.

550's have the same calipers.

more important than rust in the housing is rust on the pistons as the seals slide over them. if the pisotns are rusted then you can kiss them goodbye.

hard to believe that anyhting modern will be a straight bolt on to the fork legs, but with simple adapter plates anything is possible

before you jump into coslty changes try running the stock brakes with green racing galfer pads.

they improve things quite a bit even if in my vintage racer i ended up going with bigger 300mm discs and F08 Brembo calipers.

if you are in europe, I got a complete setup of 280mm surfaced discs + calipers + green galfer pads which i am not using, it shouldnt be too expensive to ship.

i got mine for my 750R1 from a 1982 kz 1100. i paid less then 35 bucks for both fronts on ebay.

Thanks for the responses. The pistons appear to be rust-free. I went ahead and sanded the corrosion off the piston housings, which was mostly on the lip. The piston now moves within the housing as it should. Now I can move on to the long list of other things that aren't quite right on the bike.

turboguzzi wrote: 550's have the same calipers.

more important than rust in the housing is rust on the pistons as the seals slide over them. if the pisotns are rusted then you can kiss them goodbye.

hard to believe that anyhting modern will be a straight bolt on to the fork legs, but with simple adapter plates anything is possible

before you jump into coslty changes try running the stock brakes with green racing galfer pads.

they improve things quite a bit even if in my vintage racer i ended up going with bigger 300mm discs and F08 Brembo calipers.

if you are in europe, I got a complete setup of 280mm surfaced discs + calipers + green galfer pads which i am not using, it shouldnt be too expensive to ship.

Sorry if this is considered a hijack -

TG, I've looked for the galfer pads for my Kz's but haven't been able to find them. Is it specifically the Gpz's that you have found them for?

i actually located them somwhere in the USA, cant remeber now, will look into but try galferusa.com

you could also go into the gpz550 forum, correy the admin runs them in his racer and sure will be glad to help you

or pm me your email and ill fwd.

Thanks, I'll dig some more. If I come up empty, I'll drop you a PM. Appreciate the help!

Their catalog appears to only have the Kz900 and Kz1000's models for Kz's. Guess I'll have to wait until I do a brake caliper swap. Thanks!

Edit: Wait, I see a "CSR 650" listed. I'll have to cross reference the OEM brake pads to see if their the same.

So the GalferUSA catalog shows the Kz1000 D3 as having pad # 052.

The Kawasaki.com part # for the 1979 Kz650-C3 is 43082-1001. This part number is supposedly shared by the following models:
KZ1000-A3 (KZ1000) (1979)
KZ1000-A3A (KZ1000) (1979)
KZ1000-A4 (KZ1000) (1980)
KZ1000-B3 (KZ1000 LTD) (1979)
KZ1000-B4 (LTD) (1980)
KZ1000-C2 (Police 1000) (1979)
KZ1000-C3 (Police 1000) (1980)
KZ1000-C4 (Police 1000) (1981)
KZ1000-D3 (Z1R) (1980)
KZ1000-G1 (Classic) (1980)
KZ400-H1 (1979)
KZ440-A1 (LTD) (1980)
KZ440-A2 (LTD) (1981)
KZ440-A3 (LTD) (1982)
KZ440-D1 (LTD Belt) (1980)
KZ440-D2 (LTD Belt) (1981)
KZ440-D3 (LTD Belt) (1981)
KZ440-D4 (LTD Belt) (1982)
KZ550-A1 (1980)
KZ650-C1 (Custom) (1977)
KZ650-C2 (Custom) (1978)
KZ650-C3 (Custom) (1979)
KZ650-E1 (LTD) (1980)
KZ650-F1 (1980)
KZ750-G1 (LTD II) (1980)

Soooo...in theory - these should work for me: www.starcycle-usa.com/servlet/the-164903...32-Brake-Pads/Detail

I may order them anyways as long as I can return them.

Sorry for the hijack - I'm done now.

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these are the ones i bought for my bike. they work great and its for all 3 brakes

DoubleDub wrote: So the GalferUSA catalog shows the Kz1000 D3 as having pad # 052.

The Kawasaki.com part # for the 1979 Kz650-C3 is 43082-1001. This part number is supposedly shared by the following models:
KZ1000-A3 (KZ1000) (1979)
KZ1000-A3A (KZ1000) (1979)
KZ1000-A4 (KZ1000) (1980)
KZ1000-B3 (KZ1000 LTD) (1979)
KZ1000-B4 (LTD) (1980)
KZ1000-C2 (Police 1000) (1979)
KZ1000-C3 (Police 1000) (1980)
KZ1000-C4 (Police 1000) (1981)
KZ1000-D3 (Z1R) (1980)
KZ1000-G1 (Classic) (1980)
KZ400-H1 (1979)
KZ440-A1 (LTD) (1980)
KZ440-A2 (LTD) (1981)
KZ440-A3 (LTD) (1982)
KZ440-D1 (LTD Belt) (1980)
KZ440-D2 (LTD Belt) (1981)
KZ440-D3 (LTD Belt) (1981)
KZ440-D4 (LTD Belt) (1982)
KZ550-A1 (1980)
KZ650-C1 (Custom) (1977)
KZ650-C2 (Custom) (1978)
KZ650-C3 (Custom) (1979)
KZ650-E1 (LTD) (1980)
KZ650-F1 (1980)
KZ750-G1 (LTD II) (1980)

Soooo...in theory - these should work for me: www.starcycle-usa.com/servlet/the-164903...32-Brake-Pads/Detail

I may order them anyways as long as I can return them.

Sorry for the hijack - I'm done now.

not sure the ones in your link are the green compound, maybe check?

thing is the green has been discontinued but lots of guys still have them in stock

www.lockhartphillipsusa.com/store/product.php?productid=18843

but picture is wrong :S

just from memory, i think i got them from cyclebrakes.com

mine are the 062's towards the end of the catalog

www.galferusa.com/html/p-bp-specs.pdf

Do you know the compound # for the green? Is it the Kevlar Organic that you are talking about? G1532?

These show G1532 as the Green Kevlar. www.galferusa.com/html/p-bp-m.html