Well I THOUGHT I knew the answer....

[Toolmaker Tim]

A couple of brake questions. After taking off the rear brake I found a tear in the rubber boot. Where can I get a new one? I think I can polish the rust pits out of the piston. There are only a couple. Any recomendations for brake pads? And on that note, are the front brake pads suppose to be on an angle, that is beveled from top to bottom? They are Versa pads with green paint on them and they look brand new. It's looking like I'm going to be learning about brakes now. Joy!

[XSPastor]

Hey Toolman,

Yamaha still sells the parts. Yes, the front pads are angled. Strange huh?

I buy my OEM parts here:

Yamaha Parts

Just enter motorcycle, the year and model and pick out your part from the diagrams. After-market pads from companies like Vesrah seem to be good too.

[bikerphil]

caliper boot

They have caliper rebuild kits at partsnmore.com for $16, includes everything. Here's the link....

https://www.partsnmore.com/cat_index...tegory=chassis

I've fixed torn boots with RTV black before, and that works fine.
They also have brake pads. I use them and they are just fine.

[fredintoon]

At least you asked

Hi Tim,
it's a Special, right? I'd never seen or heard of an ATE pattern caliper so when I tore down the locked-on front calipers to unfreeze them and saw those tapered pads I muttered "Stupid effin' PO" and binned the pads. The day after the bin was emptied I bought new pads. They are SUPPOSED to be tapered. Who'd have thought it?

[Toolmaker Tim]

Brakes

Great, i'll look into getting a rebuild kit for the back caliper. Haven't been able to work on the bike today, SWMBO needed some things done, so they got pushed to the front of the line. Considering the brake fluid is brown, I'm going to take the master cylinders apart and give them a good cleaning. Thanks for the help.

[egsols]

Hey Toolman,

Be sure to check out the tech tips section on the MC rebuilds and pay particular attention to cleaning out the spooge holes.

[TADracer]

I have been running Vesrah pads in my machine for awhile and they work pretty good. So, if they are fairly new I would save a few $ and re-use them.

[Toolmaker Tim]

brake pads

I think they are new. I really wanted to know if the were right. The angle thing threw me off. I'm making up a notebook on the tech tips as I need them, so the part about cleaning the inlets and outlets will be included. One thing for sure, after I clean all the junk out of the MC's (started tonite) the bike will be lighter.

[Toolmaker Tim]

What the Heck is going ON?????

OK, i took all the rear brake things off and decided while I was there to pull everything apart. Grabbed my handy-dandy notebook full of tech-tips, and the master cylinder doesn't look anything like the pictures. There are 2 wires coming out of the bottom, there is only a plastic cap on the top, the body of the reservoir is a casting with a fluid level glass on the side, not mostly plastic like in the pics! Lastly there is NO spooge hole. I figure the village idiot that previously owned the bike had a Dr. Frankenstein moment and grafted an odd part he had laying around. It's all cleaned up and ready to go, but will it stop? It worked well before. I'll try to get one of the kids to get a picture of it and help me get it include in my next post so someone can tell me anything about it. Digital cameras, posting pictures on the web, it's all Greek to me.

[John]

The rear M/C that you describe sound like what is used on the 81 LH (MNS) or the XJ 11. Is the rear M/C linked to R/F brake caliper?

[Toolmaker Tim]

Rear Brakes

If I understand your question correctly, R/F means the front of the rear brake caliper. If that's correct, then yes.

[Toolmaker Tim]

Another thought

How big is the spooge hole. From what I am assuming (yeah I know about that word) it's a pretty small hole

[John]

No, R/F means right front, but I said that in error. I should have asked if it was the L/F caliper. The 81 Midnight Special, and the XJ 11 had a linked brake system where the rear brake lever controlled the rear caliper as well as the left front one. The front M/C controls the R/F caliper only. The rear M/C that you described sounds like the one used on those bikes.

[Ken Talbot]

Re: Another thought

Originally posted by Toolmaker Tim
How big is the spooge hole.

Very small. Here's the tech article complete with pictures.

BTDT..

[Toolmaker Tim]

Eureka I Found It!!!!

That is one small hole. These old eyes aren't what they once were. Thank God for Optivisors. After finally getting the front M/C back together and finding out the front caliper boots DON'T stay in place when you put the retaining ring on them, I put everything back togther. When I put the brake fluid in I saw bubbles rising from the spooge hole, so now I know what to look for. As far as I can figure John, you are right about the rear M/C . There is a manifold on the back of the M/C that has 2 openings with one plugged and the other connected to the brake line. There is also a float in the reservior that has a metel ring that goes over a guide that has the electrical connectors. I suppose the manifold's other opening could be connectedanother brake line. Everything else seems to line up ok, so I guess it's all good. Now I have to deal with a butchered up fuse holder, but I think I've got that figured out. (insane laughter in the background)