Rebuilding Shimano hydraulic brake lever?

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scottm

scottm

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There is no user servicable parts in the Shimano brake levers that I am aware of. The reason being that Shimano hasn't made the parts available to do it.

They are cheap enough to just get new ones.

If you are sure there is no air in them and the cable isn't leaking, it's probably time for new ones.

Here's a little debate on the subject:

Non-serviceability of Shimano (brake) parts - why? « Singletrack Forum
 
Thanks, I'll check price of a new lever. Then I'll try tearing mine down and measuring the seals, see if I can just order what I need from McMaster.
 
You could ask skillet. lol.

When my hydro lever crapped-out, I took out my old XTR V-brake integrated lever/shifters (which I preferred anyway), slapped on a cable, and ran a mechanical disc caliper off my neighbor's dep't store bike. lol

Since then I've taken-off the other lever, put on some BB7 mechanical calipers, and I have no real plan to go back to hydro.
 
I'll stick with hydro. These have done extremely well in daily commuting and crashing through the woods, caked in road salt most of the winter, abused and neglected, rarely cleaned or serviced. I changed the fluid once. Bike shop says they can install a complete set of Juicy (3.5?) front and rear for $220, including new rotors, seems like a good deal. My rotors are pretty shot. Hopefully these will line up with the rotors on my summer wheels. I guess they use DOT brake fluid, I liked the simplicity of mineral oil, but it'll be easier to find brake fluid.
 
scottm said:
I'll stick with hydro. These have done extremely well in daily commuting and crashing through the woods, caked in road salt most of the winter, abused and neglected, rarely cleaned or serviced. I changed the fluid once. Bike shop says they can install a complete set of Juicy (3.5?) front and rear for $220, including new rotors, seems like a good deal. My rotors are pretty shot. Hopefully these will line up with the rotors on my summer wheels. I guess they use DOT brake fluid, I liked the simplicity of mineral oil, but it'll be easier to find brake fluid.
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Hydro is so the way to go these days. There's much more modulation and control. I find that cable brakes will stretch over time and lose their smooth pull. Not so with hydro.

I own the new Shimano XT hydros, swapped out the organic pads for metallic and never looked back. The brakes feel just like the power brakes on your car. Complete, one finger, light touch control. You can really go down a rocky, steep and even slippery slope with one finger on each lever and maintain a constant speed on the descent. Cable doesn't work that way.

I really think Shimano brakes are the most reliable out there and I'm not saying that as a Shimano fan boy.
 
Mr. Toad said:
Juicy 3.5
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Thanks, I told the shop about that deal in case they wanted to save a buck. That is about their wholesale price though, and the link was only for rear. The shop lowered my price, not sure if it's because we talked about their prices.
ravewoofer said:
Hydro is so the way to go these days. There's much more modulation and control. I find that cable brakes will stretch over time and lose their smooth pull. Not so with hydro.

I own the new Shimano XT hydros, swapped out the organic pads for metallic and never looked back. The brakes feel just like the power brakes on your car. Complete, one finger, light touch control. You can really go down a rocky, steep and even slippery slope with one finger on each lever and maintain a constant speed on the descent. Cable doesn't work that way.

I really think Shimano brakes are the most reliable out there and I'm not saying that as a Shimano fan boy.
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Shimano better than Avid? I'm not that demanding on my brakes anymore, gotta keep my limbs intact these days. I definitely prefer hydro both for performance and lack of maintenance. Cable brakes would never have held up this long with no degradation in performance, I've worn out plenty of them.
 
scottm said:
Shimano better than Avid? I'm not that demanding on my brakes anymore, gotta keep my limbs intact these days. I definitely prefer hydro both for performance and lack of maintenance. Cable brakes would never have held up this long with no degradation in performance, I've worn out plenty of them.
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I think Shimano is better than Avid, but if you want a million views on the subject you may want to check this forum category: Brake Time - Mountain Bike Forums

I've had Shimano hydros on my Rocky Mountain Element for the past three years. Other than changing pads, I've never had to do anything for maintanence. Avid doesn't get the same rap.
 
profro said:
Which ones do you have? What do they look like? I have some old levers from that vintage that I will give you.
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I have pics in the link in my first post in this thread. I don't see any markings on the levers to indicate XT or LX or anything, makes me think they just had one lever at the time.

I don't think I'll hang onto the old parts. By the time these Avids go bad my old Shimanos will be relics, and $50 for a complete new brake assembly.
 
Mr. Toad said:
Ravewoofer: What different cable disc set-ups have you run?
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Avid BB-3. Honestly, the set up was a bit better than shimano V-brakes, but not much. Lever feel wasn't at all like hydro either.

The best cable brakes I've used were Avid V brakes, but still, they just can't compare to anything hydro.

I've got my brakes(New model Shimano XT) set up just right for me. Having the confidence and knowledge that your bike will consistently stop or deaccelerate in a controlled manner means you can hammer even faster than normal through technical and down hill sections.

Grabby, weak brakes make one ride much more cautiously as you're constantly trying to adjust pedal speed and balance over rocks and roots. Net effect can be an endo or slow ride.

I love going fast! No slow for me Senor.
 
Interesting. I've never used BB3s. I've heard a lot of people singing the hydraulic praises using language similar to yours, but most of those people went directly from V-brakes to hydro discs without any cable caliper to compare the hydro to. FWIW, I really didn't detect much drop in performance or feel going fron hydro XTs to cabled BB7s.
 
My wife's bike has cable disks, it's a great fair-weather system. If I ran cables they would be filled with salty, gritty slush all Winter, and mud all Summer. My cable brakes used to deteriorate steadily until I couldn't stand it, and I'd replace the cables. And they needed to be adjusted regularly as they wore and temps dropped from Summer heat to Winter sub-zero. Daily temp changes of 30* even affected them slightly when I commuted, and if they were marginal I'd have to play with the adjust again or tolerate it. I did that for decades, didn't really mind, but now that I'm used to hydraulics no-muss-no-fuss, I think I'd mind.
 
I know Shimano is considered the Evil Empire in the mountain bike world, but really, you have to give the corporation alot of credit for the amount of r & d Shimano puts into their products.

Index shifting: Game changer
Hydro brakes: Game changer

I doubt Shimano invented either category, but once involved, Shimano just made the products work right, and (usually) intuitively.
 
You can get new internal parts for Shimano disc levers, although it sounds like you need to bleed the brakes. If you have never bled them, they will have built up some air in the lines or the body. If you were going to rebuild the lever internals, then you'd have to bleed them anyway, so you might as well try the bleed first. Mineral oil doesn't attract water like DOT fluid does, but is less resistant to heat. A DOT system needs to be bled a bit more frequently because that water in the line will boil off into air when the brakes get hot and then they will be mushy. You'll need to up the frequency of bleeds if you have a lot of long descents, especially if you drag the brakes all the way down.
 
I've bled them a few times, filled with Pentosin. They aren't mushy like air in the line, they lose pressure and pump up firm with several pumps of the brake levers. My experience with car master cylinders tells me it's the master cylinder leaking internally.
 
hey scott, if your xt brakes are the old style dual piston caliper style (easy to spot) then i would like to buy them off you when you switch.

bike_disk_brake.jpg
 
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