Brake Lines

[Chuey]

I was just going to write up what I did today. My '84 R100RS, also known as The Captain, had a brake seal failure last week. Being parked up without being able to be ridden didn't appeal to either me or The Captain. Recently, I had laid in a supply of six Brembo caliper rebuild kits from the BMW dealer. Also on hand was a fresh pair of BMW brake pads.

I decided to rebuild only the one caliper since the other one was working fine. I still feel kind of funny about that but if I change my mind, the procedure is fresh in my mind. I thoroughly cleaned the caliper, both rotors and the whole wheel and front end of the bike. The caliper came out nice after being rebuilt. I was also changing all the brake fluid in the same operation.

Because I was concerned that I would lose control of at least a little bit of the brake fluid - I haven't done this lots of times yet - I didn't want to put the sexy new brake pads in the rebuilt caliper. I really like pushing the fluid up through the brake system instead of trying to pull it down out of the MC. So, I used my trusty syringe with a piece of hose. Fluid had just started showing at the floor of the MC when POP! and fluid pouring out of the caliper. Only a couple minutes were needed for me to figure out what my mistake was. There was nothing to keep the piston in its bore and it was pushed out. Well, isn't that about the most obvious thing!?!

Finally, I cleaned the old brake pads and used them as temporary foils to that happening again. The brakes "came up" very well and work as intended. Thing is, I still have the stock lines. In my stash, I have some Stainless wrapped lines from a wrecked bike I bought. Maybe that will be the next project.

I hadn't ridden The Captain in quite some time. You see, he had put a second degree burn on my right leg after a long trip through the desert in the Summertime. I healed fine. No grudge is held. I have to say that the power, and the transmission on that bike are smooth. Today, as The Captain and I did our run to check the effectiveness of the brake work, I felt unusually tuned in. The Captain was happy as ever!

Chuey...........admiring the boatyard pictured in the opening post.

[hal]

I changed brake lines on my oilhead recently. It has ABS which freaked me a bit, but procedure was the same. Used vaccum bleeder with my compressor. It worked very well, just kept bleeding a bit longer than usual to be sure there was no air left.Then I changed brake fluid on the R90 as well. Easiest brake fluid change and bleeding ever. I used a bit more fluid than normal, but it came in a litre bottle anyway, and I don't want to use that again in a year...

Cheers!