To grease or not to grease - banjo bolts?

OK I've bled brakes enough times but never actually changed the
lines... but all that's going to change thanks to e-bay and Mr
Goodridge. So do I need to grease the copper crush washers / banjo
bolts, or just leave them dry? And if I should grease them - copper
grease or "normal"?

Thanks in advance.

Cheers

 

I've always left them very clean and dry, as I don't think copper grease
has any home inside the hydraulics of a brake system.

 

Muck says...

Wot the comedy-haired one said

 

Why not use the grease they give you in the piston overhaul kit?

 

(DannyBoy) struggled to ejaculate:

Why the **** would you want to?

If you can come up with a little sachet of banjo grease, I'll grant
you that you may employ that, but otherwise - no grease on the copper
washers. You really don't want a little nodule of grease sitting on
the sealing face, waiting for the first time that you really haul the
anchors on to make a break for freedom - followed instantly by all the
pressure you'd just built up and a squirt of brake fluid ... now do
you?

 

Why do you presume he's using such a kit? And even if he was, it might
come with grease for the cylinder/pad interface, but he's asking about
the banjo bolts, which are an entirely different kettle of worms.

 

Pip wrote

All a banjo needs is natural human lanolin and a wipe with a lint free
cloff.

 

Pip / Muck

Thanks for the clear thinking - once I'd thought it through after
reading your posts it became *very fxxking* clear that I shouldn't be
contaminating the brake fluid with anything!

Thanks!

 

True but he'd be a bit of a dick to go to all the effort of replacing
the fluid and hoses and bleeding his brakes without investing an extra
35 minutes in an overhaul.

Anyway just becuase he hasn't got a grease sachet doesn't mean he
can't find the same grease and use that if he so wishes. (Although he
seems to have chnaged his mind now.)

 

I don't. The OP did.

I think you're being a little over dramatic here. Anyway what the hell
kind of grease are you talking abuot thats still in situ after you've
crushed a copper washer!!!

Grease comes with brake ovehaul kits. So it can't do any harm. Whether
or not it does any good isn't what the OP asked.

 

Dont add anything to them - just make sure they are *very* clean. A
lot of greases etc will **** the brake fluid if it gets in contact in
any way
HTH
JP

 

DannyBoy wrote:

Grease on a banjo will get squashed around both sides of the washer, one
side just happens to be the hydraulic side, the other side, atmosphere.
Any fluid not designed to be in a hydraulic circuit is not going to be
any good there is it? Just coz the grease comes with the kit, it doesn't
mean you have to put it everywhere.

About copper washers, they're meant to deform and follow the surface
imperfections in the two surfaces they have to provide a hydraulic seal
with. Grease is at best going to get squashed out, at worst it's going
to form a lubrication layer that could hide in imperfections in any of
the metal surfaces, this becomes a bad thing at the high pressures a
brake hydraulic seal has to handle. This is more likely to happen if you
re-use the washers.

Also, the torque of the banjo bolts is specified with the threads dry.
Lubricating these threads will alter the friction between the banjo bolt
and the caliper meaning that you could over torque the bolt and over
stretch the soft alloy in the caliper. This could lead to a hydraulic
leak, which is going to put a crimp on your day.

This is why you don't grease banjo bolts.

 

Make the fluid *dirty*, you mean?

Heaven forfend.

 

You appear to have omitted a "you fucking fuckwit" above.

Here, have one for free, to use as you wish - simply tear off, cut and
paste and distribute as you see fit:

_____________________________________________________________________

You fucking fuckwit

_____________________________________________________________________

 

Thank you - I knew I'd forgotten something.

Lovely. I'll save it for later.

Seeing as you're online, can I nag you and her Ellyness for a response
to my email re 11th Dec?

 

Since you're putting it on your pistons we can assume the grease they
give you does no harm at all. Even less so on the Banjo bolts IWHT.

No, I don't grease Banjo Bolts because I don't see the point. THe OP
is the one thinking of greasing Banjo bolts. I merely suggested to the
OP that the offcial grease that presumably is designed not to **** up
brake fluid is the one to use if he does grease is Banjo bolts.

So **** off.

 

Have you ever actually stripped and rebuilt a brake caliper? It's
quite clear that you haven't the faintest idea about the subject in
question[1].

Snappy comeback, oh master of wit and repartee.


[1] Should fit in just fine here then.

 

He's gotta go out and buy fluid, he's got to bleed them which is
always a pain in the arse. He'll be cleaning the pistons anyway while
hes covered in brake fluid and shit. Just simple things like putting
on old clothes and washing up take time too.

If you're gonna set aside two hours to change hoses you might as well
set aside an extra chunk and do the overhaul.

....but I don't really give a toss either way. Free choice innit.

 

Heh.. no _you_ **** off.

 

Didn't get it :-( Not the original, anyway.
Best sort out alternative email addy for me, I think.

Have replied anyway, in the affirmative.