Brake Caliper Piston Construction

When I look at my caliper piston,it has a circular black [plastic?] [insert?] occupying about 80% of the piston end surface area.
When I look at the pretty pictures on wemoto of brand new ones, they appear hollow and have no such plastic][insert. :blink:
Does anyone know the detailed construction of these things? All comments gratefully received.


Post edited by: tellietubbie, at: 2006/06/13 21:17

Post edited by: tellietubbie, at: 2006/06/13 21:48

tellietubbie wrote:

When I look at my caliper piston,it has a circular black [plastic?] [insert?] occupying about 80% of the piston end surface area.
When I look at the pretty pictures on wemoto of brand new ones, they appear hollow and have no such plastic][insert. :blink:
Does anyone know the detailed construction of these things? All comments gratefully received.


Post edited by: tellietubbie, at: 2006/06/13 21:17<br><br>Post edited by: tellietubbie, at: 2006/06/13 21:48

that black plastic looking thing is an insulator to keep heat away from your calipers. i think kawi went to that type when they started using sintered metal pads...steve

I had the hollow pistons in my caliper when I changed them out (pitting) for one of the insulated ones. As Fixer5000 said, it's an insulated pad they went over on when they started using scintered metal pads.. the insulator keeps the brake fluid from boiling.

Works fine as a replacement, but if you have that metal shim between your pad and your piston, you can go ahead and toss it.

Thanks a lot guys,I'm having some made out of stainless steel and I wondered what the black disk was![and how I'm gonna create it]!!
No metal shim though,nothing on diagram either.Never occoured to me that they'd get that hot:woohoo:

Post edited by: tellietubbie, at: 2006/06/14 18:01