Master cylinder and caliper rebuild - red rubber grease

[Crusty Snippets]

Grease

I am with Yahman on this.
I always used grease on the seal in the past. Was more recently advised to only use brake fluid. On the front brakes I used fluid on one side, and grease on the other. The grease side pumped up, the fluid side did not. I took the fluid only side apart and applied grease. It then pumped up. I will be using the fancy grease stuff from now on. Which is how I always did in the past.

When you get to the end of the main straight on the track doing 145 mph, and you do that every two minutes, and you have to slow down a whole bunch or crash, you get pretty concerned about the front brake.
At Westwood in BC, there was a hairpin at the end of the main straight. One minute 20 seconds between visits. New pucks / pads every month, fresh fluid all the time.

Unkle Crusty

[cajun31]

update

I found this link.... http://performanceracingoils.com/cla...ls-c-2_37.html located in the USA for the subject grease. I eventually got two small tins of the stuff from and Ebay seller from Florida before I discovered this link. I had order 500g from a UK Ebay seller and waited a full month before the money had to be refunded to me. I still don't know where that order ended up. To make a long story short I used the grease on both MC and all my calipers and all I can say is what a difference. They bled easily and the brakes have never been better.

[Orange4]

I have always used Sil-glyde and had good results when lubricating sliding points on brake calipers.

It's also recommended for rubber parts and caliper o-rings and rebuilds. It has a high resistance to water washout, protects against corrosion and won't harm finishes.

I think it's easier to find than the red rubber grease you guys mention. I found it on the shelf at my local auto parts store.

[cajun31]

I used the sil glyde too.

I used the sil-glyde on the caliper pins and on the brake pads on the opposite sides from the calipers. There has been some debate as to whether this stuff causes swelling in rubber so I was a bit apprehensive in using it inside my calipers. It also may not be brake fluid compatible and would be a problem using it inside the brake master cylinders. I used the red rubber grease on all the internals on both the front and rear masters as well as the caliper seals and pistons. So far everything is working better now then ever before. Of course I also changed to SS brake lines which has helped. I agree the red rubber grease is hard to find but it is available and does not harm either the brake fluid nor does it cause a problem for the spooge holes in the masters. I have enough of the stuff now to rebuild my brakes multiple times if need be. I plan to refresh my brake fluid at least every two years so the stuff will come in handy.

[Orange4]

There doesn't seem to any debate about it in the literature. It's designed specifically to lubricate rubber and for rebuilding the entire brake system including o-rings, seals and boots so it must be compatible with brake fluid and rubber. That's what it was developed for.

If you personally already use the red rubber grease that's cool but it's safe to use Syl-glyde for lubricating the pistons and seals according to their literature.

Anyway use what you are comfortable with. I'll use it on mine and report back.

One thing I found during the teardown of my calipers was congealed red grease in the o-ring groove which had hardened and gelled, almost gluing the o-ring in place. That's probably 30+ year old grease though.

[Geezer]

Use dielectric grease if you have it. If not go to a gun shop and buy a bottle of RCBS case resizing lube. Neither of these will damage the rubber parts and will restore free moment of the free floating calipers on our XS11's...

Geezer