After the winter break I noticed that the front brake felt squishy and had lost some of its stopping power. I didn’t think much of it, I simply bled the brakes, added more brake fluid and thought that would fix the problem. A few days later on one of my morning rides, I noticed brake fluid leaking onto my right hand from the master cylinder, upon further inspection I also noticed that my brake pad was well beyond worn, so I decided to take the whole thing apart, paint the calipers, replace the pads, and get some shiny new steel braided brake hoses.

Here we go:

This is my only method for draining the brake fluid since my bleeder screw broke off last summer. I had to remove the metal brake line that connects to the outer caliper, stick it in a plastic bottle, and squeeze the brake lever till it all squirted out.

The outer caliper looks pretty rough. You can see the busted bleeder screw in this pic. This was easy enough to remove, just unscrew the two bolts.

Yuck, crusty and caked on filth. These bolts can’t be salvaged.

I think I’m going to barf.
Notice the brake pad is next to nothing. I feel embarrassed that I was riding it like this for so long and didn’t notice.

The original paint is long gone.

Here is a shot after about a minutes worth of sanding.

Here is a shot after I removed the lower brake hose.

The lower hose is also not salvageable.

At this point it doesn’t matter but the metal brake line is never coming off that rubber hose, its stripped to hell and frozen solid.

I’m re-using the banjo bolts even though they look a bit rusty and old, purchasing a new set would be too expensive.

While I was down there I removed this metal tab that I assume is supposed to hold down cables or hoses.

Much cleaner.

Yuck. The upper hose and banjo bolt are fairly rotten. I should have replace these last year. My suspicion is the rubber housing that sits over the shoulder of the banjo bolt locked in moisture over the years and caused the extreme oxidation. I don’t plan on using the rubber insert when I install my steel braided hoses.

My master cylinder is great physical condition but I may get a modern one or at least one that is built for inclined bars and has a sloped reservoir.

Here is the last banjo bolt on for the upper hose that connects to the pressure switch that activates the brake light. I thought about removing the switch to clean things up but that would mean I would need one long steel braided hose that runs from the master cylinder to the front brake and its too late for that, I’ve already purchased hoses that replace my existing ones.

Garbage. So far, every time I pull a part off I’ve been able to sell it but not this time, these pieces are beyond repair.

Two bolts and outer caliper brake pad.

For the sake of page loading time, I’ll cut this post in half and continue on the next one.