Front brake Problems

[Jeffintampa]

Hi all,
Today on the way home from work my front brakes were dragging. I pulled over and took both calipers off and drove home on the back brake only. Well I bought new pads, Caliper rebuild kits, and master cylinder rebuild kit off Ebay, like 70.00 for all. Pretty much thinking all are 33 years old. I am wondering if anyone has rebuilt their master cylinder and brake calipers and can walk me through it.

Jeff

[jetmechmarty]

It sounds like the spooge hole under the reservoir is plugged. It's the little one.

This is why all of our vehicles are supposed to have scheduled brake fluid changes.

Master Cylinder Rebuilding

Brakes not releasing? Check your Master Cylinder "Spooge Holes"

Master Cylinder Rebuild Plunger rubber installation

[DGXSER]

Well, the first step is to get the pistons out of the calipers. What I have done is to remove the first brake caliper. Remove one caliper from the bike. Remove the dust shield from the piston, then use the MC by squeezing the brakes like normal to push the piston out of the caliper. Keep an eye on your fluid level in the reservoir and keep it topped off. When that piston comes out, remove the banjo bolt from the line on that caliper. Use a clamp and a piece of rubber to seal off the eye the banjo bolt goes through. Now repeat for the other caliper. IF there is to much air in the line to get the other one out, then you can use compressed air, or a grease gun on the bleeder to push the caliper out.

Once you have both pistons out, you can remove and clean / rebuild the MC.

Sorry I do not have a detailed pictorial on the procedure.

[Jeffintampa]

Thanks guys

Should be a couple of days (hoping by the weekend) till the parts come in. I think since really reading up on it I am going to go get new bolts for the calipers, I might have made a mistake! I put cups under both brake lines and with the top off the MC pumped as much of the old brake fluid out as I could. It was pretty black and nasty.

May take some time but, new pads, rebuilt MC and Calipers new fluid. It will be like new and last for a good amount of time......

Thanks everyone

[GLoweVA]

Should be a couple of days (hoping by the weekend) till the parts come in. I think since really reading up on it I am going to go get new bolts for the calipers, I might have made a mistake! I put cups under both brake lines and with the top off the MC pumped as much of the old brake fluid out as I could. It was pretty black and nasty.

May take some time but, new pads, rebuilt MC and Calipers new fluid. It will be like new and last for a good amount of time......

Thanks everyone

With fluid looking like that, I definitely say it's time for a complete disassembly and flush. Since you've already got new software (o-rings and such) coming then even though you may be able to get by with re-using the old stuff, definetly put the new stuff in.

Just a thought, but have you thought about how bad the rear brake fluid may be too?

[Jeffintampa]

cool

I have put new brakes on the back several times (seems I use that one a lot more) I bleed them till and add fresh brake fluid till it bleeds fresh. I do have the problem that one guy posted on this site, seems like the last time I put new pads on the back I have to push the lever a lot lower than I ever had to before.

I got a guy that just moved to my area (had a post on Craigslist) that is a motorcycle mechanic for 12 years. He said he would rebuild both calipers, rebuild MC, put new pads on, check rotors, and put on bike and bleed them for 125.00. I may just jump on ebay and get the back rebuild caliper kit and rear MC repair and new pads, and have pretty much all new brakes (before all the old people start coming back to Florida) lol

Jeff
Thanks again everyone.....

[jetmechmarty]

Jeff,

I don't know if your brake lines are original OEM, but the factory service manual says to replace them every four years. Now would be the time to change them if they are due. You can buy a ready made kit over at XJBikes.com. I'm sure it wouldn't raise your labor bill any.

[TopCatGr58]

Hey Jeff,

What Marty forgot to mention is when you replace the brakelines, you want to do it with Stainless Steel braided lines. Although it may not necessarily increase the labor cost much, it will increase the materials cost a bit, but they are well worth the $$ in the feel, response, and stiffness of the brakes vs. the old spongy vinyl lines.

Now as for him "checking" the rotors...he can check them, but they are quite thin to begin with, and he may actually find that they are worn beyond the bare minimum thickness....but that's not really a problem. You may also have grooves worn into them, but they can't be turned/smoothed easily or cheaply, as well as it can take them even further beyond the minimum thickness level anyways. Main thing is checking them for warpage.

I forgot to look before I started posting, but if yours is a special, he'll need to be informed about the wonky slanted pads and swivel cailpers as well. Okay, just looked, yep special....see recent thread about pulsing brakes caused by bent mounting bolts for the specials....so check yours, and if bent, replace them.

T.C.

[Jeffintampa]

bolts

Thanks I will have to look into the lines, yea the rotor got hot hot hot discolored it a bit too. Ouch those lines are pricy whew. But live in Florida and ride in the winter with all the old folk you need your brakes to be top notch I bet I was almost hit 3 or 4 times last winter. Kinda scary in the morning when you have to stop at a light at 530 am and suddenly a town car comes skidding up beside you and stops a few feet beside you and infront of you. They would of plowed me really bad but turned to go beside me in the last second. Tell you what God watches over me as I ride and I am getting new bolts Saturday need em or not.

[DenyP]

The SS lines are expensive but you should never have to replace them again. I just did the complete brake rebuild + lines on my ride. No regrets!

Deny

[Jeffintampa]

well shoot

Well today a friend came over and we worked on the bike, got both calipers took apart, cleaned and honed out, pistons wet sanded with 2000 rebuild kits installed and they work nice, with a little pressure you can push them in and light puffs of air at 50 psi move them out. well as you can see from my other posts I bought the wrong brakes, could not get them to go on. We took off the master cylinder (braking the brake light wire) and don't have the tools to rebuild it. so little progress made