Ah, woe.... dragging calipers......

Cousin Jack

Cousin Jack

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Aug 21, 2008
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128
Age
82
Location
Ellensburg, Wa
I've just had my front wheel off for the first time, swapping a tire, and now, after it's all back together...... the left front disc (left sitting on the bike) and the rear disc are significantly hotter than the right..... (this is a not an ABS bike). I'm hoping I screwed up something simple when I put the wheel back on.... Please look below and see if my collars were put back on right? (my schematics from Bike Bandit ain't helping much....) If the collars look right, what else do I check?

top:Right front collar (as you sit on bike)......
bottom: Left front collar....
 

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The narrow collar goes on the left side and the wider one goes on the right.

Did you spread the pads when putting the calipers back on? If you didn't clean the pistons it's possible that one or more had dirt on them and is now hanging in the housing and not releasing as it should. Can you move the left caliper in and out using just hand pressure? There have been issues with the top piston freezing up and if it compressed and is not relaxing it could be holding pressure on the brakes.
 
Spacers are installed correctly and I second the motion regarding the calipers pistons being the culprit. This has happened on my ST.

I pulled calipers off and pulled the pads out, took a block of 3/4" wood and stuck it in the caliper and then pumped the pistons out. The block of wood prevented the pistons from comming out to far.

I then took brake cleaner and a soft brush and scrubbed the pistons, one of them had a bit of corrosion so I polished that out with a very fine jewlers cloth. I then made sure there was no debris between the rubber boot and the piston, pushed the pistons back in the calipers,installed the pads and pumped up the brakes.

This did the trick for me. The rear brake caliper gives me more fits than the front ones.
 
Cousin Jack said:
snip...... the left front disc (left sitting on the bike) and the rear disc are significantly hotter than the right..... (this is a not an ABS bike). I'm hoping I screwed up something simple when I put the wheel back on.... snipr....
Click to expand...

don't forget ... the left front and rear work a bit with the Secondary Master Cylinder...
I would check that too!
 
Cousin Jack you didnt mention what year your bike is but if the braking plumbing is the same up to my year bike and i have an 08 according to honda when you use the front brake when you squeeze the brake handle by the right hand it sends hydralic power to only 2 of the three pistons on both of the front brake calipers and then sends hydralic fluid to only one piston to the rear brake caliper, so when you use the rear brake when you push down on the foot brake under your right foot that sends hydralic fluid to two pistons on the rear brake and just enough hydralic fluid to only one piston of both of the front breake calipers so you have to use both the hand and foot braking to use all of the braking capability, so if you are having one of the front calipers sticking, that tells me that you might had some grit on one or all of those pistons when you pushed them back in with the new pads, do like mike did and use a block of wood and take out the new pads and if you still have the old pads put the wood where the brake disk is suppose to be and pump put the pistons and get you some brake cleaner and clean those pistons get you a metal brush combo pack that has different types of bristles to the brushes and use i think the copper bristle one im trying to remember but i cant at this moment and some of that jewlers cloth and make you a small brake piston strip floss and that should get you something like maybe 1/4 inch wide and floss the pistons, i remember doing that to my old 83 honda cb900 custom
 
Mike said:
I then took brake cleaner and a soft brush and scrubbed the pistons ...
Click to expand...

:eek: Not the stuff you want to be using on the pistons because it will eat away at the caliper seals. Use brake fluid instead. I keep an old bottle of it on the shelf with a toothbrush strapped to the outside for just that purpose.

--Mark
 
+1 ... I use old ( prev opened ) brake fluid and a plastic sponge scrubby cut to a thin strip...
I wrap/hold in place the strip with a piece of cloth and pull back and forth like shining a shoe.

Then go back and just use cloth to clean off any excess fluid.


PS... clean/use a bit of wd 40 on the Secondary M C at boot... i still think his problem is there if the left front and rear are heating up.
 
rglgatortail said:
i have an 08 according to honda when you use the front brake when you squeeze the brake handle by the right hand it sends hydralic power to only 2 of the three pistons on both of the front brake calipers and then sends hydralic fluid to only one piston to the rear brake caliper
Click to expand...

iirc the back brake only gets pressure from the brake handle if the bike is moving...via the rotation of the secondary master cylinder. 08 and up has a slightly different front caliper/master cylinder.

anywho checking and cleaning the pistons with brake Fluid is in order.
 
Tom Mac 04a said:
PS... clean/use a bit of wd 40 on the Secondary M C at boot... i still think his problem is there if the left front and rear are heating up.
Click to expand...

If he's dragging the front left, he'll get pressure on the rear whether the SMC is sticky or not.

But cleaning out the SMC boot is probably a good idea no matter what.

--Mark
 
Ahhhhhh..... I may have warped a rotor on my p.o.s. Harbor Freight changer..... $368 at Bike Bandit..... if I did, where's the cheapest place to buy a Rotor?
 
I have a harbor freight tire changer and am wondering how you possibly warp a rotor using it. I just changed my tires a couple weeks ago and all seems fine.
 
sennister said:
I have a harbor freight tire changer and am wondering how you possibly warp a rotor using it. I just changed my tires a couple weeks ago and all seems fine.
Click to expand...

I'm not sure actually, I think I did it somehow breaking the bead..... that spoked thing that carries the rotor itself? That bolts to the wheel? I think I dinged one of them, rotor rubs unequally against the brake pads...... I gently hit it a couple of times with an steel rod, and it's better..... the two left side rotors are now a lot less hot after riding it..... I guess I should have taken off the rotors when using my machine.....

But... it's a critical area and I am going to replace it quickly....
 
I used 2x4s as support under the wheel so that the rotors never came in contact with anything while breaking the beads. Did you put anything under the wheels during this process? If not you may be right. You may have put excess pressure on the rotor when trying to break the beads. How did you balance your wheels? I made a static balancer. If it were me I would pull the wheel put it in the balancer and spin it to check for lateral runout. I think that is what it is called. If you don't have a balancer you should be able to do the same by putting the axle back in the wheel and putting it on jack stands or something or maybe just remove the calipers so they don't get in the way when you spin the wheel.
 
I got it pretty near straight by using the pads as run-out markers...:(....tapping the connector arms of the rotor with a steel rod....and now she spins pretty good, but I wonder how weakened the whole affair is.... think I'll see my way to a new rotor anyway...

and no, no I didn't put down the two by fours..... stupid..... I'm going to build a two by four platform for the wheel next tire change....
 
Cousin Jack said:
I got it pretty near straight by using the pads as run-out markers...:(....tapping the connector arms of the rotor with a steel rod....and now she spins pretty good, but I wonder how weakened the whole affair is.... think I'll see my way to a new rotor anyway...

and no, no I didn't put down the two by fours..... stupid..... I'm going to build a two by four platform for the wheel next tire change....
Click to expand...

If it's spinning true then don't worry about strength, it hasn't been weakened, just knocked out of alignment a little. :(
 
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