Dirty Brake Line

[xs1100newb]

Hello all,

I am so close to having this bike rideable. It starts up great, its a rough idle but great throttle response above 2k rpm. (I plan on looking at the pilot circuit tomorrow). I am ready to get this bad boy on the road for the first time but brake system has no braking fluid.

I went out and bought DOT 3 Brake fluid and when I opened both front and bake reservoirs they were full of crud. The holes at the were nearly completely clogged. I am assuming I need to somehow clean the entire braking system. I would prefer not to remove the calipers but instead try something easier first. Can I just put the braking fluid into the reservoirs ride around for a couple of minutes then bleed the brakes and repeat until it comes out clean?

Adam

[xs1100newb]

Sorry, it should be added that I first removed the diaphragm before noting that the ports at the bottom of the reservoir are clogged.

Also, there is currently no fluid in the lines since the PO drained it before letting the bike sit for a long while (approximately 1 year).


Adam

[crazy steve]

I'd personally be very hesitant to just trying to flush the system and expecting good brakes. If you've got dried-up brake fluid residue in there, you're really asking for trouble by not biting the bullet and fully disassembling everything and getting all that crud out.

You could end up with what I found on one I have; the PO didn't clean the brakes out, and the rear caliper froze up. It froze while he was out riding. By the time he got it home, he'd damaged the clutch, ruined the rear rotor, and melted the caliper....

[petejw]

these things are big and heavy
and hard to stop at the best of times,
strip the master cylinder, callipers and flush
the brake hoses with brake fluid,
uve done so much with it so far, doing a little bit more
will be well worth ur effort.

[Aches n Pains]

Agree with the previous responses. Take it apart and be sure everything works to your satisfaction.

Might also consider rebuilding the master cylinders.

You can use your air compressor to blow out most of the crud in your lines.

Sorry but stopping is really more important than acceleration.

[xs1100newb]

Ok. Since every response says to take everything apart and clean it that is what I am going to do.


Any advice on where to start? Does the manual cover such things?

Adam

[rpgoerlich]

l would start by getting that master cylinder cleaned up, It may require a re-build. Once pumping, flush out each line to the calipers and get all the air out. Can be quite a chore If they are completely stopped up and the lines may need to be replaced. I'd opt for new lines rather than replacing with used for long term.
Then use it to pump out one caliper piston at a time so you can remove it, clean it out, remove and clean the seal and where it sits, inspect the piston. It may have some erosion from sitting with water. If it's where it'll go by the seal, I'd replace it. If not, polish it up and re-assemble, bleed it until you have the line clear of air. Start on the other caliper and repeat. Same with the rear brake.

[DGXSER]

Hey Adam,

The front brakes are a good starting point. Start by pulling off, ONE and only one of the front calipers. You can try to add some brake fluid to the reservior and see if it will develop pressure and push the piston out of the caliper. If this does not work, then go ahead and pull both calipers off, and pull the master cylinder off. You'll need to use compressed air or even a grease gun to pop the pistons out of the calipers. Clean well behind the seal ring inside the caliper. And getting the C-ring out of the master cylinder to get it open can be a little difficult. But otherwise, it is pretty much clean and reassemble.

As to the brake lines, I used brake cleaner to wash them out.

On the back brakes, before you spend an hour trying to get the caliper off, make sure to remove the phillips screw at the top of the caliper on the back side. And yes, bleeding the rear MC is not an easy task.

[DenyP]

Ya, I can tell you from experience there are no real short cuts here. You will be fighting that gunk clogging up the works till you do a thorough cleaning. I advise changing the brake lines, Stainless if ya got the $$.

Deny

[natemoen]

Yeah get her cleaned out! These bikes are heavy and a little weak in the brakepower to begin with!

[Rasputin]

Mine looked like this http://www.xs11.com/forum/showthread.php?t=24288 I just added more DOT 3 to get it back to fluid state. Pumped it all through so it was back to clean brake fluid. Then took it all apart to clean it. I would never trust a dirty brake system.

[natemoen]

That's nasty rasputin!

[xs1100newb]

Ok. Here is an update.

I have cleaned the front left caliper. I removed it from the bike and disconnected it from the brake line.

I then removed the pads, the metal clip, and dust boot. Afterwards, I removed the piston. The piston is in pretty good shape. There is one rough spot and I cannot tell if it is rust or really hard, caked crud. I will look at it again tomorrow since I am tired now. The housing for the piston is in real good shape and I already got it clean, as well as the area behind that weird looking o-ring which has a square cross section and sits in that recess. There appear to be two holes going into the bottom of the space, one from the brake line, the other from the bleeder port. I cleaned out both holes with a tooth pick and a paper towel. Tomorrow I will rinse everything out with clean brake fluid and move onto the next caliper.

Once I get all of the calipers done I will move onto the brake lines, master cylinders, and reservoirs.

Am I missing anything?


Adam

[crazy steve]

Nope, that sounds good. The really critical spot on the caliper is the recess that 'square' ring fits into; you want to get every possible bit of corrosion out of that area. As far as the piston, if the outer diameter of that is good (nothing more than just light, minor rust/pitting), how the rest is isn't as important. Before you reassemble, make sure the piston slides in/out of the caliper bore smoothly and easily; if there's any roughness, you can 'polish' the bore and piston with 0000 steel wool.

[xs1100newb]

Are there areny small orifics or passageways in the caliper that I need to be made aware of. I have only dealt with carburetors before and I have no ideaif the complexity of a caliper is similar to that of a carb with many different passageways and circuits and what-not.

Adam