Brake questions

I took both front calipers off this evening so I could take a look at the pads. Couldnt really see anything in the inspection hole. Once I could see the pads still had some life left I put the calipers back on the forks. I did'nt remove the pads or jiggle them .. just shone a light on them. When I put the calipers back on I gave a few squeezes of the brake lever and it felt a bit mushy at first but now seems fine. I'll run the bike up and down the street in the morning for a proper check.

This brings me to two questions.
1. Should I be thinking of bleeding the brakes ? I've seen a number of horror stories in the archives so hope the answer is no.
2. If I do have to bleed, is it best to do one side first and then the other or tackle both at the same time ?

Thanks

That happened to me too. I figure I had squeezed the fluid up into the reservior, and a few squeezes after re-assembly pushed the calipers back into position and all was well after that.

Thanks Biquetoast,
That's encouraging. Hope it's the same for me. I guess I'll know in the morning.

its a good idea to flush some brake fluid out of system every season though to keep trash out of system.

hey jr

the horror stories you read about are from total disasembly of the brake system, tring to bleed all the air out of a dry system is a pain in the but, but if all you want to do is get some fresh fluid in there then you should have no problems (if it's done right) also in order to remove the calipers and to reinstall them you need a little room , to get that room the piston has to move back in the bore this is the reason you had to pump the system back up to remove the little bit of room you needed. anyway I would suggest bleeding your brakes, dot 3 brake fluid has the tendancy to absorb moisture witch can cause a soft feeling and can corrode all the internal parts and is a real bitch to clean out properly, when I did mine I had to replace both front pistons because they both were pitted real bad from water contamination cost me over 100.00 to do the job properly not to metion I had to charge myself labor!

Thanks guys.

Everything seems fine this morning - brakes behaving normally. However, I ordered new pads and in the next couple of weeks I'll replace the pads and also flush the system with new fluid. Thanks again for the advice.

Well the new pads came in the mail during the week. If I knew what I was doing then replacing the old ones probably would have taken me under an hour but seeing as this was the first time with this bike and the manual is not all that clear I figure it took me about 2 1/2 hours to figure everything out.

Took the calipers apart and after figuring how the pads were suppused to go in the first problem I encountered was in trying to depress the piston to make room for the new pads. Eventually the light went on and I got a clamp and screwed it down - worked like a charm - with the bleed valve open. See pic. The little bleeder kit (tube and cotainer) was really usefull and cost about $6 at Princess Auto (Canada only). I reassembled the calipers and put them back on the forks and flushed a half a bottle of DOT3 brake fluid through the system using the following procedure. Open bleed valve, squeeze brake lever, close bleed valve, release brake lever, always making sure the reservoir was topped up.

The old fluid was yellow and grungy so the flush with new is a good thing.

Seemed to work out fine. I'll run the bike up and down the street when the rain stops but just in short jumps under the carport it seems fine.



Post edited by: JR, at: 2006/09/02 15:41

Post edited by: JR, at: 2006/09/02 15:42

Post edited by: JR, at: 2006/09/02 15:44