Another problem that was apparent right away, was a spectacular rattle that came from the front end. Using my excellent reasoning and deduction skillz, I noticed that the rattling stopped when the front brake was pulled. I got off and listened while it was idling in the garage and noted it came from the front caliper. Here's a nice blurry picture, as my camera decided to focus on the bicycle wheel in the background.
1) There are 3 little viton rubber seals on the 2 mounting pins, but from the manual and parts diagrams, I couldn't figure out how they actually worked. From the few issues I'd already seen, it did not seem entirely unlikely that these would be completely rotted away or not in place altogether. $1 each, so I bought the 3 pieces from the local Harley place.
2) There's a little clip that holds the outside brake pad in place. I had seen this on the manual, and I understood the idea, but it just didn't dawn on me how important this piece was. So I didn't buy one beforehand.
I decide to take the caliper off and see whats what, and replace the o-rings as I do. This was entertaining. The hex bolts are pretty big, but I had a T-Handle set that did the job. There were 4 things that became immediately apparent.
1) The viton seals are installed in little grooves in the mounting holes on the caliper to buffer the mounting pins. I was correct that if they weren't there, the caliper would rattle, but the seals that were in place seemed fine. But I replaced them anyways, since I had the new ones. When I eventually put it back together, these did actually make a difference and the mounting felt more solid. Yes, I greased them so it wasn't like they were dry...
2) The little clip that holds the outside pad in place was non-existent. "Well there's your problem." But, I hadn't been that smart, and hadn't bought one.
3) The inside brake pad was down to the metal. This was pretty awesome since the outside brake pad looked fine. The disc doesn't seem problematic, so I'd guess that either its a design flaw and the inside wears out faster than the outside, or one of the PO's replaced just the outside. Highly unlikely, but who knows. And no, I hadn't thought to buy pads yet either.
4) The top pin has a little metal piece with a notch that mounts in a particular way over a little round nail-head looking thing on the outside pad mounting frame thingy. I know, technical terms. Whoever installed this last had mounted these pieces wrong, and they were smashed together and somewhat ruined. The manual actually warns about doing this right. The little nail head piece was ruined enough that I was worried I'd have to replace that whole pad holder frame, and they're like $40, so that wasn't happening. So I gat to scraping at it with a flat head and eventually shaped it so it was functional. And the little pin tube with the notch (called a Pin Boot on the diagram, and its actually 2 pieces, a tube and a little bellows type boot) actually has 3 notches, so I flattened out the flared part that was ruined so it would mount, and rotated it so it was mounted with one of the un-ruined notches.
Since I didn't have pads or the little clip, I just put it back together and went to the store the next chance I had. Why do I put stuff back together in a case like this? I have 3 little kids that think its cool to mess with stuff, and this is not one of those things I want them to mess with.
The pads were $34 at Cycle Gear, by EBC. Organic pads. I read online that there are 2 types of pads you should buy, and a 3rd you shouldn't. Of the 2 good ones, there are organic and sintered. Organic are softer, wear faster, and are cheaper. Apparently, people like the feel of organic. EBC, and other places I found, say that a good combo is organic in front and sintered in the rear. Better feel in the front, but rear pads wear faster because more weight is on the back in Harleys. You can find the cheap 3rd kind online for like $20, but these are the kind where the entire pad material part will come right off the backing plate. Not cool. Anyways, these good organic pads were $34, and Harley wanted $42 for theirs. The choice is easy, and EBC pads are good quality from what I read.
So I take the caliper apartand put some of the anti squeal brake goo on the contact parts. I have a seperate bottle of this, although a little bit usually comes with car pads. It didn't come with these, and I don't even know if its useful on motorcycles, but it couldn't hurt. I put the outside pad in the holder and install the clip, and amazingly enough, its as if it was designed that way! One note on the pads. They come with a new screw, as the inside pad screws to a holding plate, and the stock screw is too small. But it comes with a lock washer, the kind thats split and forged so it puts pressure on the two pieces, etc. But the washer is too big, and you can't actually get the thing back together if you use it. So I just skipped using it. I checked it after a ride and it still feels secure. Someone remind me to check it again after a while...
Now, when changing brake pads, you have to push the cylinder back into the caliper, which pushes brake fluid back into the resrvoir. So the manual recommends you take some of the brake fluid out so it doesn't spill over. This is where I have a few problems. First, you want to get the reservoir level-ish, or it'll dump out when you unscrew it, kinda like what happened with the primary case. But this bike has non-stock handlebars (more on that in another post), and when you don't have a lift or something else to make the bike level, you want to turn the wheel all the way to the right so you have good access to the caliper, otherwise you end up with a tiny workspace, which is no fun. BIkes are cramped enough.
I didn't really have a choice, and the reservoir wasn't too off level when the bars were cranked to the right, so I got some sturdy shop towels underneath the resrvoir, ready to clean up anything that spilled. Luckily it wasn't that high, probably partly because the pads were so worn, and the caliper was so far out. So I used a metal spoon and took out some and safely stored it in a very clean glass jar.
As the manual recommends, don't take out enough that air can get into the system. I've never bled brakes, and I don't really want to (although I'm going to have to), but I helped my dad do it once on his volvo when I was like 16, and it sucked. Don't get air in the system. So once you get your pads in place and ready to reassemble, you have to pump the brakes to get the caliper back in place. I had pushed mine in farther than necessary, so it had a lot of travel, so I had to pull the lever like 50 times. I left the cover off, which I'm not sure you're supposed to do, so I could watch for bubbles. It didn't give bubbles, but a filmy cruddy goo came out as I did this. This tells me, that I'm going to have to bleed these sooner or later. The pedal feels pretty firm, but brakes on a motorcycle are not something you want to take chances on. I'll eventually be taking the front wheel off for replacement or painting, and then the fork sliders off for painting, so I'll probably do it then.
Because of the shenanigans so far, and those worn pads, I wanted to check the rear pads, but ran into another tool problem. The rear caliper uses these giant star bit bolts. So I'll have to take another trip to Harbor Freight to buy the set that has the bigger size mounted for 1/2" socket wrenches. ANd look at that rusty bleeder screw...
Nice bike! Definitely couldn't get that job done with out socket wrenches. Make sure to put more pictures up of your bike when your all done.
ReplyDelete