How to remove reservoir from brake lever assembly??

[calee4nyaboy]

Hi All,

I have a 1980 GS1000/G that I am completely redoing the brakes on (and boy do they need it) I am having the hardest time getting the front reservoir off the brake handle. It wont budge a tenth of a millimeter. I have taken EVERY nut and bolt off the front brake handle (including the two philips down inside the reservoir) I have tapped, banged, pryed, pulled and anything else you can think off but it acts like its bonded to the darn lever assembly. Is this typical of these old parts? Other people seen this? For as much as I have banged on it, it really should have moved somewhat.

Is there some trick to getting that thing off? From the factory manual it looks like it just presses down inside there with an O-ring and the two philips keep it there.

Also, the outter plastic surface on the reservoir has seen better days. It's dried and flaky-ish. Are there better after-markets reservoirs, and if so, please give me a link where to buy them.

Thanks!

[sharpy]

stuck

There is a o-ring down there and it sounds like its a bit stuck. Thats all that holds it once you undo the 2 screws.Try soaking some WD40 in there somehow or check out the price of a new one and just break that one up if its cheap. You dont need to remove it to clean the system out but you might be like me and pull everything apart just to be safe.

[courier11sec]

Taking it off is a good idea so you can get at the tiny relief hole that is under it. It's a pain to get off. Mine crumbled like an old dome light when I did it on the 850. The Suzuki dealer had one on the shelf for around ten bones.

[Guest]

Bikebandit has them. If you know it's going to be replaced, channel locks should do the deed. Ray

[calee4nyaboy]

It was so stuck that I had to take a huge 15" crescent wrench and clamp the wrench on the wall of the reservoir and "pry" it off. It immediately cracked because it was totally dry rotted. There was no way to take it out and salvage it at the same time. It had to be replaced.

Someone in the post mentioned earlier that it wasn't totally necessary to take it out in order to service it. Technically they are right, but to service it CORRECTLY, it had to be removed. This was the first brake maintenance this bike had seen in almost 27 years. Under the reservoir was NASTY, DIRTY AND CLUMPED UP. If you didn't remove the reservoir but cleaned everything else out, you would have been totally wasting your time because all the clumps of garbage under the reservoir would still have remained in the system if you didnt remove it and clean it out.

My advice: When you do a total brake job, take every single part off and clean it.

Is there an aftermarket reservoir thats better than stock?? Does anyone make a metal one? Mine's in pieces so I might as well get a decent one.

Thanks

[rphillips]

I think it was in "82" that Suzuki started using a lot of all metal master cylinders. One from a newer GS 1100 or GS 1150 "E" (not "ES") should be an exact swap. In the newer ones, the sight windows sometimes get clouded up and very hard to see the fluid. Also, personally, I've had problems with the newer ones seeping fluid around the cover, probably because they have only 2 screws holding the cover, instead of 4 like the plastic reservoirs have. Sorry, have no experience with after mkt.