Brake disc refurb

[Incubus]

With the top end in place and the motor looking like it might be ready to run, I have turned my attention to making sure this beastie will stop when I need it to. I powder coated and rebuilt the calipers and the rear master and I will be replacing my front master. The disks, however, are looking pretty tacky. I plan to powder coat the centers - semi-gloss black with a slight texture to cover the imperfections - but I wondered what I can do about the braking surface itself. The disks are still in spec, but the surface is pretty scored and sixteen years of sitting has caused some surface rust. I figure the rust will work itself out when I apply the brakes, but is there anything I can do about the scoring? I've been told that these disks can't be turned. Short of finding disks in better shape, is there anything I can do to pretty these things up?

As always, thanks in advance for any help you can provide.

Patrick

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Pat,

Mine were fairly rusty, and I just took a wire wheel brush on a drill to them! Some have suggested finding a place that can do a large flat sanding/grinding of the surface, but due to the concave/convex nature of the center, you may only be able to accurately surface 1 side!? Also, IF you can grind it down, doesn't take much to take them out spec, but I'm sure many folks here are running rotors that are out of spec thickness wise and are still working okay!

A regular auto brake rotor grinder surfacer can't do these because they are much harder than the cast iron of auto rotors, but wonder if a MACHINE SHOP might be willing to mount them on a lathe and take a little of each surface??
T.C.

[rneal55555]

Unless your powder-coating them yourself you may just wanna go ahead and bye new ones MC rotors aren't really meant to be turned Bye the time you pay the powder-coater and the machine shop it won't be that much difference Mikes XS has some for $130 I'm pretty sure will work.

[Incubus]

I am powder coating them myself. Once you have the equipment the job itself is cheap and easy. I have lots of powder and a dedicated oven for curing. It works really well and is so much better than paint. That's why I'm looking for a refurb solution rather than replacement.

I bought the powder coater on Craigslist for $70 and it came with a large toaster over and nine pounds of powder. I got it from a guy who bought it and then lost his nerve and never used it. Brand new in the box. I'm still looking for something on this bike to powder coat red or purple to use some of the other colors I have....

Patrick

[rneal55555]

Well that certainly changes the economics. Some slight scoring of the rotor is pretty normal and if it doesn't look like they've been metal to metal and there not below the minimum thickness spec they should be OK. I think as a rule there's not really enough metal even in a brand new rotor to successfully turn. I know it's not recommended at any rate.

If I needed one and didn't want to spend the money I'd look to Ebay for a used one in decent shape to refurb. I looks like they can be had for $25 or so. A lot of the old XS's and XJ's use the same rotors so you don't just have to look for XS11's. You can verify fitment by looking up the part #'s in the Yamaha parts fiche online. Just try a search for "Yamaha brake rotor" from the motorcycle parts top page.

[John]

The XS750-850 rotors are a smaller diameter than the XS11. They can't be used. You can use the rotors from an XJ 11, and some of the later models XS650 used the same size rotors as the XS11. The slotted rotors are side specific, but I think that is for cosmetic reasons any way.

[Incubus]

Have any of y'all ever seen an XS11 with purple mirrors? Just wondering.....

[DiverRay]

The "royal blue candy" on my fairing and box looks purple, does that count??
Ray

[jetmechmarty]

resurfaced rotor

I believe what you need is blanchard grinding. I'm not even sure I spelled it right, but that's how our rotors get resurfaced. Try your local machine shop and ask about it.

You may find help here: http://www.vintagebrake.com/

[andreashweiss]

3 brake rotors from 78e xs1100 total miles on bike was 24,000, rotors are used. Not new but still have some life left. Price of $40.00 includes shipping and bolts,clips,all three rotors. Shipping only in continental USA. andreashweiss@yahoo.com

[kennewick58]

Disk re serface

Check out this guy for disk service.

http://motors.search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZsmw70ss

I am going to contact him and see if he can do xs work.

[Goin Commando]

This should answer your question: late XS650 rotors are the same as the 1100s. Looks like a good service, and the guy has a perfect Ebay score.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/ws/eB...3079&rd=1&rd=1

[kennewick58]

I agree it looks good!

[planedick]

Better look closely...

That E-bay sale is for grinding rotors. $39.95 each. I had a similiar problem with my back rotor. I put it in my lathe and indicated to run absolutely true and put a small grinder in the tool holder and surfaced each side. I only had to take off a total of .007" to make the surfaces smooth again.