81 xj750 seca brake calipers

Hello New to the forum. Looking for any advice on aftermarket calipers for the front rotor. My hope is to keep the original rotor and replace the left and right calipers, possibly only one if that would work. After degunking and cleaning the calipers and pistons, I'm still having issues with the pistons seizing. Personal preference, but I plan on blocking off the anti-dive. Is there any direct bolt on replacement caliper unit available? I would appreciate any input available. Thanks!

 

swap the forks on down with the forks on down from an xj750 maxim

 

Thank you for the reply! Any other options other than swapping front end, or is that pretty much it?

 

The caliper design of the xj550 seca and the xj1100 maxim are almost identical to the xj750 seca, but I don't know if the sizes are the same. Your best bet is to ask Len Chacal about interchangeability.

To the best of my knowledge, they don't actually swap, but I haven't actually tried re-fitting them.

As far as mounting....whatever calipers you DO use, they must match up with the mounting holes. Those holes are part of the lower tube slider. Therefore, whatever lowers you use will dictate whatever upper tubes you use. The diameter of the upper tubes will dictate what triple clamp you use. The length of the forks will dictate what your front-end dimensions will be (rake and trail). The triple clamp will dictate the width of the forks. The width of the forks will dictate what rim assembly can go on, etc......

So, you see how complicated it can get.

In a nutshell.....the 750 maxim front can be swapped out with the 750 seca front.....pull the forks and everything out of the maxim and stuff it into the seca. Done. Be aware that your braking may feel different now, though.......

dave

 

You say cleaning, but you don't say rebuilding. Old hardened seals will make your calipers seize. Also, there may be something wrong with pistons - out of round, scored, corroded. OE caliper pistons are made of soft metal and are very easily damaged by attempts to disassemble a stuck caliper.

I have had very good results replacing pistons with stainless steel ones from HVC Cycle. They have replacement pistons for many Japanese bikes, and I know for a fact they have them for the 750, they run something like $25 a piston. Cured all my brake issues on the XS with a set of them.

 

HogFiddles: Oh wow. I figured it could be complicated, and that sounds time consuming/expensive too if I have to replace every piece along the way... I'll be keeping an eye out for the fork uppers and lowers on a maxim. As a sidenote, would my current axle, rotors, rim, and speedo gear fit onto the maxim forks without modification?
Sorry JP. To clarify, I did rebuild the seals after cleaning with a K&L kit. I ended up using a grease gun to pump up some pressure to remove the old pistons. Already had the calipers off the bike when i started, tried to reattach to pump some brake fluid through, when attempting to bleed the brakes I found that my bleeder screws were trash (didn't work due to rusting through), and turned to that as a last resort since I didn't have an air compressor available. Heard enough bad stories about scoring or scraping the piston by hand pulling. They were definitely suck though! That worked like a charm, but added a step to the process to remove all that grease >.< I just found the HVC site not too long ago and plan on buying some new pistons from them. The old ones look beat to hell and rusty anyway, even after cleaning. Thank you for the advice!

 

Here's the easy way----

1.lift the bike up into a position high enough to slide the forks out from under it

2. Secure the bike so it can't tip or fall

3. Disconnect the brake lines and the speedometer cable

4. loosen all for pinch bolts

5. Slide the whole assembly out of the triple clamp.

6 Stuff the other assembly back in a hook everything back up.

7. Doublecheck your work

8. Go for a ride

 

Sounds like a plan. Thank you so much for the advice! I'll keep a look out for the parts