rear brake dragging

[ridgerunner1965]

the rear brake on my 79 xs is dragging a bit.just enough when its on the center stand the rear wheel is hard to turn.due to the wonderfull forum search function here ive pretty well narrowed the prob down to rust on the piston.not allowing it to return fully.caliper works awesum otherwise and does not leak.

my question is, can i remove the caliper and gently push out the piston most of the way and clean it well and reassemble?or do i need to buy a seal kit and totally rebuild it? i have no prob rebuilding it but would like to get a another month or so out of it to get me to cold weather teardown time.any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[jd750ace]

Often you can disassemble and clean the caliper without new seals. A ring of corrosion and crystalized fluid forms behind the piston seal and usually causes the condition you have.