I have been having trouble with my front brakes on my 80 ironhead. It has dual calipers too.

I while ago i flushed the really bad looking fluid from it and replaced it with clean dot 5 five, bleed it and it built up pressure and seemed just fine. I week later there was no pressure in the lever at all. Then i rebuilt the master cylinder with a j&p kit. After that i was having trouble getting it to build up pressure so i took it to a local bike shop.

he cleaned out the lines, took apart the calipers cleaned them and install a rebuild kit and reused the same pistons. He also took the master back apart and said there was a tear in one of the new o-rings that i put in and that it was more than likly from me putting it together dry. he replaced the o-ring

It is still at his shop and he said it is now working good but that that there is a leak in one of the calipers and he recomennded replacing that one caliper. He said it was part number 44121-77.

so now i owe him $200 for flushing and cleaning the whole brake system, which i believe to be a good deal because i know he spent more time than that on my bike.

Should i replace that one caliper or replace both calipers?
Is there a better set of calipers that are not too expensive? black not chrome
Can i run it with just one caliper and simply remove the bad caliper?
any advise is appreciated on this

the mechanic said if i bring him a caliper he will but it on and bleed the system again for an extra $50, which would make my total to him $250 . plus i would need to purchase a caliper.

 

If you look at the factory parts catalog it looks like 44121-77 is not the complete caliper, just the outer half and some of the internals. It does not include the pads and the inner half.

You cannot run with just one caliper.

J&P Cycles has new replacement calipers for $278 for the pair ...
http://www.jpcycles.com/product/241-399

This is the trouble with using a shop. You are kind of stuck with this guy now. He does not want to dismantle again to find what he did not find before, or to find an error that he may have made, that caused the new leak. So you have to buy a new one.

Or you can take the bike home and you and I could try to do the repair using this forum. Those calipers are simple to dismantle, clean, inspect, refurbish, except that you need an air compressor to pop the piston out. Do you have an air compressor?

 

i do have a compressor

 

To pop the piston out I use an air compressor blow fitting with a rubber tip inserted into either the bleed nipple hole or the brake line hole; I plug the other hole with my thumb or whatever. Wrap the caliper in a thick towel to catch the piston when it pops out - so it does not go flying across the shop. Takes only a moment. Easy peasy.

There are only a few parts - the two body parts, two rubber seals, the piston, the fittings. If the piston and the bore are not scratched or gouged it just needs a cleaning and maybe new rubber seals. I have re-installed the used seals a few times with no problems.