filling up rear mc

[greg maz]

working on a ruby xj11

bled the fronk brake ok

tried to bleed rear caliper, nuthin

nuthin

nuthin

nuthin

the liquid is amber and foggy, when I press the pedal no resistance, no spritz at the bleeder. Front bleeder is closed.

I tried the vacuum for suction down that line,

nuthin

[John]

Reverse/Pressure bleeding

Do a search for that topic, and there should quite a few posts about it.
Also, there is a proportioning valve in the rear brake circuit, and it may need attention.

[Getty]

I had a similiar problem. The rear mc gets pushed from below by the brake pedal. The thing that gets pushed up was stuck in the mc. Had to tap it with a rubber mallet and presto all was good.

[greg maz]

nice

will try that

now

[greg maz]

I am impressed by the help of this site:

as I have a spare rear mc, I checked with it first

Getty you are right on, the mc on the bike has no travel on contact to that vertical rod, I have to defreeze it

and John, since the fluid looked real bad, I will research & prep the spare mc to switch it soon

hoping to crank the engine tuesday:

http://homepage.mac.com/gregmazz/xj11/

[Crazcnuk]

Don't just bleed, flush, until the fluid is clean.


My rear MC was full of a thick amber jelly before I flushed it out.

[webbcraft2150]

I just went thru a similar problem with the rear brakes on my XS. Real caliper locked up. I limped it back to the house, removed the MC, caliper and rear brake pedal shaft. Cleaned the crap (and I mean crap, kinda like prussian blue mixed with 90wt) out of all the parts. I did not need ANY new parts. Reassembled, bleed the system and now have a very touchy rear brake, which really isn't a problem, its most likely working like it should now. I humbly admit to NOT having service this system in the 20+ years I have owned the bike. Kinda sad when I flush the brake in my truck and boat trailer every couple years. At least the XS was nice and locked everything up 'bout a block from the house.

Short story, pull it all down, clean and reassemble, your gonna hafta do it at some time.

[Getty]

Greg,

That was the first stumble I had with the XS. I started bleeding the brakes. When I pumped the rear it got stuck just like yours. Took me awhile to notice what was going on. Had to remove it and see what was going on. Then just clean/rubber mallet.

The front and rears were very dirty. I flushed both again last weekend. More milky crap came out. Hopefully two bleeding sessions are enough for the year. Next year I will do the same thing. Good brakes are a MUST!

[greg maz]

updated pictures of the cleaning of the rear mc:

http://homepage.mac.com/gregmazz/xj11/

got the bike running:

http://web.mac.com/gregmazz/Site_2/Blank.html

On the filling and bleeding, following advices I took care of the rear caliper first. I used a vacuum to create the suction necessary to prime the system.

Now the brakes are dragging!