Resleeving the front master cylinder

[NobleHops]

OK, so in my thrashings with my front brakes I eventually gave into the fact that my front M/C was Just Not Going To Seal. I pondered other options, was (as usual) offered parts out of other folks' caches, but in part because I had mine powdercoated (along with it's lever, which I have spares for) and the finish was excellent, I decided to have mine resleeved in bronze.

Doing my research on it I found two likely places to do the work,

Karp's Brake Service: http://www.resleeve.com/sleeving.htm

and Apple Hydraulics: http://www.applehydraulics.com/brakes.htm

Karp's advertises honed stainless steel, Apple uses bronze. Karp's took days to return calls and emails, Apple responded immediately. Apple was closer to me (NY), and so I decided to use them.

The service was advertised as 1 week, and was agreed-to at $100, inclusive of return shipping. I stripped it all down, cleaned and dried it, packed it up and shipped it off to NY. About 9 days later I had it back, pretty much as advertised.

The good: The workmanship was pretty nice as far as the insert is concerned. There is now a bronze sleeve, notched at the end to allow the fluid to pass to the banjo, and the holes to the reservoir were touched up with a drill and a countersink. I popped for a(nother) new rebuild kit, just to not have that as a variable, and rebuilt it with a smidge of silicon grease, and at last I got my brake system sealed.

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The bad and the ugly: They apparently aren't at all concerned with what happens to it cosmetically. In their various operations they pretty much trashed the powdercoat. Possibly some amount of this is inevitable as they have to chuck these things up into lathes or drill presses to do their magic, but it seems pretty wanton, and careless:

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Conclusion? This is a useful service as a last resort. If you want to definitively fix your master cylinder and be confident that it will seal forever more, this is it. It's possibly a more expensive alternative cost-wise compared to to scounging a good used part, but more certain for a given result. Definitely do this BEFORE any refinishing you plan to do though, and you probably won't be disappointed.

N.

[EMS]

Nils: If you want to "touch up" the unit get some "liquid tape" in the hardware store. It is a thick liquid that dries in a nice semi gloss, matching some of the powder coated jobs perfectly. It is used for insulating electric wires and connections, as the name says. Comes in a variety of colors, including black.

[NobleHops]

Nils: If you want to "touch up" the unit get some "liquid tape" in the hardware store. It is a thick liquid that dries in a nice semi gloss. It is used for insulating electric wires and connections, as the name says. Comes in a variety of colors, including black.

Wow, that's a great tip for touching up powdercoat Mike. In this case I was too impatient to mess with it a day longer, so I cleaned it and rattle-canned it just to not notice the dings, and I will likely have the powder redone over the winter.

BTW I will be removing your right-side switch pod today and shipping it back to you, assuming I got my new one wired to the early model connector properly. Thank you so much for the loan.

N.

[EMS]

BTW I will be removing your right-side switch pod today and shipping it back to you, assuming I got my new one wired to the early model connector properly. Thank you so much for the loan.

N.

You definitely ned to keep that switch! After I saw what you did to it, there is NO WAY I can accept that back! That is not my switch!