| Author | Message | ||
     Xband |
Riding home from getting my front tire changed, I noticed something was inconsistent about the front brake. Short travel, then long travel. When I got it home it was hard to push. I looked at the ztl and saw shavings on the top of the unit where the rotor comes out. WTF? My service manual is in another county, should I take it back to the same shop (8 miles) or the nearest shop 3 miles? | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
can you take pics? is it still under warrenty? is the tire change shop a harley shop? | ||
| Cravacor |
Hope you took it to a place who has changed more than one Buell front wheel! | ||
| Xband |
I can't take pics until later tomorrow, neither of my local shops is an HD dealer. Dealer is several counties away. The nearer shop deals in "American V twins" my regular mech mostly in Suzuki 1000 and 1300 sportbikes. | ||
| Stirz007 |
Checked rotor and caliper bolts, right? | ||
| Xband |
Stirz- Since I am somewhat new to all this I would probably need my service manual to understand what is normal. I think I will take it to the nearer shop bright and early. | ||
| Stirz007 |
Xband - Maybe just take a look at the rotor bolts (around the perimeter, attach rotor to wheel - 6 of them). Make sure they're all there, not loose, no cracks in rotor. Caliper bolts attach brake caliper to the lower fork. Give the caliper a good shake and make sure it's not loose. If it is, check the bolts. Hope it's an easy fix.. | ||
| Duphuckincati |
I don't know if it's possible, but check that they got the rotor inbetween the pads and not that both pads are on one side.? | ||
| _gdkp_ |
@duphack how should that work? - itī not possible to do this... | ||
| Bueller4ever |
Sounds like a pad fell out and they didn't notice.  | ||
| Duphuckincati |
_gdkp_, I just figured if he's got "shavings" coming off the rotor that it's not likely to happen from pad-to-rotor contact. But Bueller4ever makes a lot of sense. | ||
| Datsaxman |
gdkp, It is not GOOD to get the parts misassembled... but it is POSSIBLE. | ||
| Xband |
Thanks all, it was the rotor bolts Stirz, I doubted my ability to tell which were overtorqued or undertorqued so I just slightly tightened the worst one and took it back to the shop where I got the tire put on. Then I had H-D take a look. All was well. They expressed some amusement when I said the first mechanic felt that he had to remove the rotor to change the tire. I didn't ask if they ever did a 2 cyl Buell. | ||
| Datsaxman |
Xband, How far out of spec were how many rotor bolts? I am new to the 1125...for those with a lot of experience, is this a regular thing to check? I mean like every week regular? | ||
| Stirz007 |
X - glad it was something simple. Good thing you were paying attention and jumped right on it. Dats - This is the first time I've heard of this happening, and it turned out OK - but - loose rotor bolts could be a real bad thing if a couple went, or you were braking hard. Probably something to add to your pre-ride check - unlikely, but something you want to catch before hammer down... | ||
| Boogiman1981 |
the few times i have washed mine i take a moment to check for loose rotors etc thankfully havent had one turn up loose yet. but will give it another check in the am just to be sure... | ||
| Xband |
Yep, deer and cagers can sniff out a weak front brake like a shark can sniff out blood. Part of my problem is that I don't know what the specs are. I also can't measure the newton meters that I am exerting with the little wrench that came in my tool kit. This became a problem when someone took it off and remounted it in a hurry. I bet that normally it will stay tight from brake job to brake job. If you are worried about it Dats, I would say don't be. If it happens to you it should be pretty obvious something is wrong. In my original post I said that the lever had a variable travel, I also should have mentioned that there was vibration coming through the lever. The rotor disk wasn't on perfectly parallel and was wobbling- first close to one pad then the other. This accounts for the seeming variability of travel...it depended on how far away the disk was from the pad at the moment. Once the brakes bit, the wobbling disk caused a vibration like feedback. Two things I don't know how to explain are the shavings and the fact that pushing the bike in neutral was never *free* of braking force- maybe all the bolts were a little undertorqued. | ||
| Skntpig |
shavings might have been the grayish white loctite the factory uses on the caliper bolts. Just a guess |
