SMC replacement..

Throttlejockey

Throttlejockey

Padden is my hero
Joined
Aug 18, 2009
Messages
2,337
Age
58
Location
San Diego
Bike
06 ST1300
STOC #
8080
To you guys that have replaced it. Did you replace the entire assembly or just the rebuild kit?
I ended up getting the entire assembly with the bracket.
 
I bought all the rebuild parts for my spares kit a while back. I think I saved about $1.50 over the complete assembly but the assembly was back ordered at the time and I thought I was going to have to rebuild the SMC in the near future. It turned out that was not necessary but I will have the parts when needed. I would rather have the complete assembly rather than the parts however.
 
I believe you are better off replacing the whole assembly. It is hard to tell what damage has been done to the walls of the cylinder where the piston runs. Plus it takes 1/10 of the time to just swap it vs. fiddling around with the disassembly and cleaning of the old unit.
 
That's what I was figuring also. I was worried about the bore being corroded. Sure you can clean it up but I would rather know that everything is fresh.

It's definitely considerably more for the complete assembly. The rebuild kit cost for me was $39 and the entire assembly was about $103.
 
The extra money will be well spent. When the rubber seals go bad, the bore is often scored. New seals won't help and your rebuild kit will have been in vain.
Just remember, once you replace it, do a complete and correct bleed often (once a year) instead of the "every two years" honda recommends, this way you'll never have to do it again (I hope)
.02
 
In my case the rebuild kit was on back order with no estimate. They had the assembly on hand. With the cost of gas and commuting on the bike vs cage made it at least a wash..
 
I swapped mine out today and pulled the one apart that was one on there. It was perfect, no corrosion and moved nice and smooth. Not bad with almost 55K on it.

I feel bad changing it.
 
looks can be deceptive, try measuring the bore if you feel too bad, or you may have just gotten very lucky.
Glad you got it swapped out. Any problems bleeding the system?
Igofar
 
I don't think there's any problems with the bore. It really looks new.

The front brake still doesn't seem as stiff as I would like. I did bleed the entire system completely twice. I have the front brake pulled in and a weight on the rear pedal now.
 
So, do these SMC gradually go bad? Are they more apt to be bad after sitting for long periods of time? I've pulled back the boot and shot some lube in there a couple times. There doesn't seem to be any drag on the rear wheel when spinning it by hand. The wheel stops nicely when activating it manually etc. I've got 87K on it and I'm trying to determine what the risk is of having a failure while out on a roadtrip.
 
Throttlejockey said:
I swapped mine out today and pulled the one apart that was one on there. It was perfect, no corrosion and moved nice and smooth. Not bad with almost 55K on it.

I feel bad changing it.
Click to expand...
Mine is like that at twice your mileage. Keep up the services and you might get lucky like me.
 
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