Brake and Rotor questions - Part 2

The shims are there to help locate the pad and prevent uneven wear or the pad and annoying squealing brakes. The springs supposedly lift the pads off the rotors as you drive, their impact is pretty insignificant.

I tighten the caliper pins to around 20 ft-lb (that is not a lot). Lug nuts should be 70-80 ft-lbs.

You can borrow a torque wrench from any true gear heads you know. Buy one if you intend to do this regularly.

You should have had some fluid backup up into the reservoir since you should have pushed the pistons back. check for spillage.

They don't do anything until the pads wear down. Once they do, the edge of the squealer comes in contact with the rotor as you press the brakes and you hear a loud high pitched noise that alerts you that you that the pads need replacement.

Penetrating oil for rusted bits - let if sit overnight Impact wrench. Hit a regular wrench, once on the nut, with a hammer (cheap impact wrench) Use a cheater pipe (a length of metal electrical conduit you slip over your socket wrench to increase your leverage.)

cantera snipped-for-privacy@removethis.netzero.com wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:

Another trick, if you don't have a cheater pipe and you're using a rachet, is put the closed end of wrench over on the end of the handle or your rachet. Then you can pull on the wrench and get better leverage. I guess it would work just as well if you're using a wrench not a rachet, the key of course is being able to fit the "cheater wrench" onto the wrench or rachet you're using on the nut.

-Scott

That works well, but be sure not to let oil contact the new brake pads. If it does, it will soak in, and you will have to buy another set.

True, but it sure eliminates brake squeak..... ;-)

And driver squeak. :)

Leon

I appear to have had the same effect with "Gunk" degreaser... front brakes on my cycle haven't been the same since.

miker

Got a BMW? They seem not to like Gunk on the brake disks, I've not seen the problem on any other bike. Wash the discs with soap and water, they'll be fine.

It's an XS650. But I had the disc off and drilled it this winter so maybe the cleaning from that (soap/water, then alcohol wipe) will do it. Thanks for the info!

miker

| It's an XS650. But I had the disc off and drilled it this winter so maybe | the cleaning from that (soap/water, then alcohol wipe) will do it. Thanks | for the info! | | miker | | |

Not the old Yamaha XS650 from the 70's? with the valve lifter/starter thingy on the handle bar?

That was just on the '73, iirc. Mines an '81, even has electronic ignition, just imagine! ;)

miker

The 1972 was the first electric start/disk brake, the weird starter system continued through '73 and was replaced with a stronger electric starter in '74. BTW, they weren't XS650s then, they were the XS1 (1970-1971), XS2 (1972) and then became the TX650 (1973 - 1974) and XS650 from 1975 on.

BTW, the worst feature of the electric start? They were the first Yamaha street bikes with a kill switch, we started getting service calls from people who couldn't start the bike because........ yup.

FWIW, the first XS1, 1970 with the bright green and white paint scheme is still on my list of best looking motorcycles ever!

Contrast that to my problem last year... my bike would occasionally (like twice a day) lose fire, and as I was coasting to a stop I could flick the kill switch back and forth, there would be a tremendous backfire, and then it would run again. I suspected the kill switch had become intermittant and bypassed it. Result: Bike wouldn't run at all any more. Whatever the issue was needed the kill switch flicked on and off at startup to get power to the coil. Flicking the key on and off wouldn't do it for some reason.

Eventually I found the ignition box was at fault. Haven't traced a specific fault inside yet but I suspect the circuit that keeps the coil power off until the engine is turning over (to prevent current drain and coil heat, I guess) may have something wrong with it that keeps it from sensing the engine is turning. Flicking the power to the box on and off with the kill switch was apparently fooling it into thinking the engine was turning.

Borrowed a box off a friends parts bike and that fixed the problem, which returned as soon as I went back to the original.

miker