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brake question

2K views 14 replies 7 participants last post by  doomer 
#1 ·
So last week end me and my mechanic had to rebuild my front brakes for the most part. the calipers were pretty grimy and not closing correctly so we broke em down all the way pulled all the rubber and soaked em in some parts cleaner and scrubbed em up. they came out like brand new and i went ahead and replaced the pads which was the original goal. took us almost 45 mins to bleed the lines all the way since i have 20 inch apes on it with some pretty long lines.

now that its done and i have a nice firm brake level. i noticed that every time i get on the front brake it sounds like a cricket. like when they chirp really fast. its a pretty low sound and not like a tapping or anything it just sounds like a cricket. best way i can describe it. also it seems like i dont have as much stopping power. im not sure if its the new pads are of a cheaper make they were bike masters , or what. i have a nice firm brake pull and i stop ok. i dunno it could jsut be that i was use to riding with the soft bad brakes for so long it will take me a while to get use to em. but you guys have any idea why they sound like a cricket?
 
#2 ·
Parts cleaner???

You will now ,have to REPLACE every rubber part that the parts cleaner touched and wash all other parts with hot soapy water and dry.

Any kind of petroleum based product that comes into direct or indirect contact with rubber brake components renders them useless.

To ignore the second sentence puts your life and the life of others at risk!!!
 
#4 ·
the calipers were pretty grimy and not closing correctly so we broke em down all the way pulled all the rubber and soaked em in some parts cleaner and scrubbed em up.

?
This is what I read.

It you did not follow up with a soapy water rinse to remove any cleaner residue, my comments still apply. These parts, including the rubber bits, should not even be touched by your fingers because skin oils can have a detrimental effect on them.

Also, it is poor practice to break down a hydraulic system without replacing all rubber parts.
 
#7 ·
you ever find a cure? did it go away? i mean i still have plenty of stopping power . im just wondering if i replaced the pads with a cheaper set then what was on there.



and smedlin and sfair. its a fair point you make. the issue comes with we didnt have the parts and didnt count on the calipers malfunctioning so we worked with what we had. the rubber all looked to be in good shape. at least good enough to put back together. as well at this being my only running vehicle. and during the disassembly gloves were worn the whole time so we never touched the rubber. and gloves were changed between handling parts. after the clean up the calipers and stuff work great. it just makes that odd sound now when the brakes are engaged. i know its frowned on to do what some people consider half ass work but we work with what we have available at the time. its kind of how we survive. we normally dont have the money to work on the bikes so we try to salvage and work with as much as we can to cut the cost. i know in some places you should never skimp. this is likely one of those areas honestly. but after testing and running it i think we got it right. i appreciate the concern and feed back. these are valid points.
 
#8 ·
No solution, it is still there. I asked at the dealership, they said it was the air going through the vented discs and that it wasn't a problem. They had no explanation as to why it only started after the original brake pads were replaced. I am used to the sound now so don't really notice anymore. Brakes work fine, no problems with quick stopping.
 
#11 ·
Hi, Ramcharger:

I have rebuilt a lot of brake calipers over the years. If the rubber seals look good and you don't have the new rubber parts in stock, you can put the old parts back in so long as you cleaned them in a water based solution and allowed them to air dry over night to remove all traces of moisture. I would, however, in such a case purchase all the rubber parts including any o-ring seals between the caliper halves, and keep them around for a subsequent rebuild.

The noise could be the new pads. Depending on the composition of the brake pads, you could just be experiencing a different stop time when they are new. Some do grab better. The EBC sintered glass pads are a real good grabbing pad. Generally the softer the pad material, the faster the grab and stop. You should try to use the break in instructions from the manufacturer to break in the pads. You have to gradually introduce harder braking on new pads if you wish to put the proper surface on them for the rest of their life on that caliper.

The other possible source of that noise is your rotors. You may just need to wipe them clean with a doubled over paper towel with some Brake Clean on it. I prefer to clean the rotors with calipers removed so the brake shoes do not pick up what gets dissolved in the fluid I am using to clean the rotors. Occasionally a rotor may need deglazing. But stainless steel rotors rarely need this done, and all the Japanese and American bikes use SS rotors. Ducati uses Ductile Iron on theirs and I have converted my ZX9R and my ZR1100 to Ductile Iron full floating rotors. Those have to periodically be gone over with a special hone. Or, it could just be noise from the shoes skipping across natural variations in the rotor surface such as the air holes.
 
#12 ·
thats good information thanks.

yeah the rubber all looked pretty good in the calipers and since it would be days before we could get the parts we reused them for now and the work alright the only issue i seen was the noise. it seems like the more time i put on the bike it has lessen a bit more. its still there. and its kinda just amusing to me now that it sounds like a cricket when i stop lol. i normally try to space out the breaking power at about 60/40% between the front and rear so im not too aggressive on the front. had the front lock on me a few times on my old nomad and it was enough to make me really rethink my braking habits. lol. anyways thanks for that info
 
#13 ·
This web site just wiped out my answer. Not happy.

I think that noise is your pads and some break in is needed. Proper break in or "bed-in". Jeff Gehrs works for Ferodo America (he runs that branch of this company). They are primarily a race brake product manufacturer but they sell both rotors and pads for street bikes. Jeff wrote a nice instructional blurb on break in. It can be found here:

http://www.braketech.com/images/docs/racepad_bed-in.iii.pdf

Yes, the article is referencing riding on a track, but the same procedure applies to street pads, he has told me on the phone to use it for my sport bike and my ZR1100 standard bike, both of which run all Ferodo products on the front. And this procedure is geared toward your front brakes mostly, since you should be using those for 70% or more of your braking except at parking lot speeds. The essential words in that article are: "...The correct bed-in procedure entails frequent application of the brake and progressively increasing pressure as you begin to feel the brakes begin to come in." What he means by those last two words is you should at some point begin to feel a different feedback at the lever, and less pressure on the lever should bring the speed down as this feel changes. If you read the article above this section, he talks about the importance of a uniform deposition of residue on the surface of your rotors when you break in your pads. So this procedure is important to get good performance out of your pads and rotors.
 
#15 ·
I'm used to working on older bikes where a lot of parts are hard or impossible to find. I have rebuilt at least a dozen calipers reusing the original components. If you are careful, it works. Never use solvents around rubber brake parts. Clean brake fluid and a soft toothbrush has worked well for me, and it can't damage the seals.

If I can get new seals, I wouldn't go through the trouble of cleaning and replacing old ones, but I have put a lot of miles on bikes where reusing the seals was the only option other than finding a different caliper that could be made to fit/work.

I'm noticing that several posters have had information about parts from other bikes that will work on our V2K's. We should have a thread with all this info in one place.
 
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