Remove front wheel to change brake pads?

The book has a step to remove the front wheel first before replacing front brake pads. Is this necessary? Can't I just whip the caliper off without pulling the front wheel? I've got dual discs if it makes any difference.

Thanks

I was just thinking the same thing. Mine just started making noise and I HATE that. But then again the pads have been on since 1982 :whistle: That's when the PO put them on. And then parked it in the barn the next 17 years before I got it.
What brand are you going with??
Pat

just unbolt your calipers.

Hi Pat - mine are probably originals too. I checked them for wear and the piston side pads are well past the wear mark. It's something I put off for a long time because pulling the front wheel is such a pain. I'm going with EBC pads. I can get them locally at a good price which means I can get the job done this weekend. Book also says to only use organic pads NOT sintered for the early model disc brakes like we have. Using sintered can cause overheating and brake failure (just a fyi).

Take a flashlight and look down inside in calipers at the pads. There should be a red or green line/groove around the circumfrence of the pad. This is the wear indicator. If the line on either pad is touching the rotor it's time for a change. Change both pads at the same time. The piston side will normally wear much faster than the inboard side.

Thanks wireman!

No reason in this world to remove the wheel, the calipers come right off after removing the bolts. Good luck on your EBC pads. I think you'll have to invest in a set of ear plugs.

Thanks for the encouragement Ron...I think...

RonKZ650 wrote:

No reason in this world to remove the wheel, the calipers come right off after removing the bolts. Good luck on your EBC pads. I think you'll have to invest in a set of ear plugs.

Do you have a better supplier???

The pads Jeff carries are Vesrah brand...I figured organic is organic, but what do I know.

patmann wrote:

RonKZ650 wrote:

No reason in this world to remove the wheel, the calipers come right off after removing the bolts. Good luck on your EBC pads. I think you'll have to invest in a set of ear plugs.

Do you have a better supplier???

It may just be me being unlucky, normally having high mileage bikes ect, I don't know, but I wasted so much $$$$ trying to make different pad sets work including Vesrah, EBC and Ferodo. They just flat won't work on a KZ. Like I said, maybe just me. I tried all the usual remedies including auto pad goop to supposedly quiet down noise, sanding the pads, sanding the rotors, slotting the pads. Nothing worked at all. Sometimes the brakes may be quiet for a couple days after fooling with them, but the noise always returned. I'm not talking a little squeel either, I'm talking a shrill ear wretching 100db scream that send pedestrians jumping for cover at 100 yds away. On newer stuff like the GPZ series I had no problems, but on older KZ all were a no-go. I just bite the bullet and buy pads through Kawasaki, watch ebay for nos parts, or take used pads out of junked bikes. To be perfectly honest I did have one set of Vesra's that worked real good but wore out in 1/3 the miles of a stock pad set. That was my first set of aftermarket pads. After that no luck whatsoever. I tried the same pads in different KZ650s, in my old H2 too and they squeeled in all the bikes the exact same level.

I guess I should add this was many years ago, so my experience may not apply. I'm sure government regulations on pad material as well as laws restricting the maximum noise levels may have made the pads different now.

Well I guess I won't be needing those EBC pads so soon after all. I bought them yesterday and pulled a caliper today to find out the outer pad still had meat on it. It's just hard to see the wear indicator on the outer pad when they are still installed.

Oh, and I need to retract my statement about the outer pads wearing quicker than the inner. Wear was pretty much even.

I swear I'm such a knucklehead sometimes. :whistle:

as long as the sliders are working on calipers the wear should be pretty even.