How to - Hone a Brake Cylinder // ToolPRO Brake Cylinder Honer

Worn seals in brake cylinders and calipers cause a range of issues from leaking brake fluid, spongey brakes, or even a brake pedal that goes straight to the floor. But you can rebuild these parts with the right tools and the following technique.

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[dracula-dead]

Excellant video...thank you. It's environmentally sound to stop throwing rebuildable items away.

[genericusername]

Good video, thanks. Sure, brake fluid can be used to lubricate the replacement parts, but some manufacturers recommend to use a modest amount of a certain type of rubber-compatible grease. Toyota is one of them.

[vytas]

Awesome! I'm actually working on a motorcycle hydraulic clutch but that tool should do the job.

[DLStaS]

Can't say a thing about the product itself, seems to be decent enough from the look of it; but the video makes some rather questionable recommendations, IMHO.

- Don't use a wire brush, it's far too aggressive for the job. Green Scotch-bright with some WD-40 is excellent for cleaning the internal components of a break cylinder, doesn't leave scratches and removes residue & rust very well.
- You've scratched the inside of the cylinder with this hone tool, but it seems that the rust is still there, what's the point ? The inner surface of the cylinder must be flawless, without any color spots. The cross-hatch pattern is probably useful for something, but I haven't seen it on factory made cylinders (usually they just have a mirror-like surface), so probably it is not all that required. Many shop manuals explicitly prohibit honing or machining the inside of the cylinder because it removes factory anti-friction / rustproofing coating.
- Cleaning steel/iron parts with water is inadvisable, rust forms almost immediately. Use proper brake cleaning fluids.
- Mineral oil-free assembly grease / rubber grease / break paste must be applied to all rubber parts, as well as cylinder walls, during assembly. Without lubrication, the cylinder won't last long. All factory made cylinders are lubed with rubber grease. Modern glycol-based break fluid is NOT a lubricant, people who are talking about using it as a lubricant are either stuck in 1950s and 60s when break fluid was Castor oil based, or just don't know what they are talking about.
- Most important of all. It is all useless if the cylinder bore is out of spec because of the wear (which is the most typical reason for break fluid leaks, not worn seals), so the first thing to do would be to measure the internal diameter of the cylinder. If it is out of spec, just through it away and buy a new one (on rare classic cars, resleeving the cylinder may also be an option, that's a professional job that requires some serious machine shop equipment). If you don't know how to - just don't bother and buy yourself a brand new cylinder, it's not fun to have a sudden brake failure...

[johncrow]

0:44. I would not recommend pushing a screw driver into the bore. Thats a good way of damaging it.

[closertothetruth]

Wear safety glasses, brake fluid is nasty