Brakes binding

[Horseynat30101]

hi the brakes on my kwaka GPX 600r are binding... badly

they were a little sticky when we took the bike out of the van but i went for a tiny ride (probally not even 100 meters) came back and i cant even move the bike!

i know the answer is to take the calipers off and clean pistons, replace seals ect, but how do i do this exactly?

then obviously bleed the brakes. Does this mean putting everything back on bike and putting new fluid through, the lines would be completely empty so is it just a case of pouring brake fluid into the master cyclinder and pumping it through?

or is it just worth taking to my local dealer/garage? (also how much do you think this will cost including parts obv)

you know what i might just take it to a garage, although i realy doont have the money right now.... any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Guest]

if you've never done it, and dont know what your doing the first step is a haynes manual, read it to see whats involved, read it again, and then see if you have the understanding and tools, time, space to do the work.

doing it yourself will cost you the parts involved, new seals, brake fluid, some coppergrease,

but getting a garage involved will include labour, and if going down this route, go for smaller independant workshops, as they labour charge is often less of that of main dealer. also get a quote for the work and make it obvious that anything else will need to be agreed beforehand, so you dont get a big bill.

do you know anyone mechanically minded (locally), that could assist / help you?

theres a few threads on here about rebuilding calipers, so a quick search should give you some ideas, and wemoto.com should be able to supply seals and fluid

[Fozzie]

EXACT same thing happened to Jin's GPX400. Same bike just different top end and hers is solid black in colour.

The front brakes do bind quite badly after a while and this is a recognised flaw with them as it happens to them through age. So when you replace them it shouldnt be a hassle again while you have it.

We got it done for free incidentally but I have performed the job on a bike before. Its quite labour intensive, but probably doable for you. So long as you wear some mechanics gloves while you are handling the fluid and keep it away from your eyes. I would drain the whole system and slip the calipers off. Then you have to take them apart and replace the seals and give them a good clean.

If you have a Haynes go for it and use the web as an infinite resource. Youtube will probably have videos on how to perform the task.

If you know someone who can do it for you though a wink and a smile wouldnt go a miss in trying to get them to do 3 or 4 hours of work for you

[eastanglianbiker]

if the pistons are binding that bad you will have hell of a job geting them out of the caliper but a dealer will charge you a fortune there is another forum post about someone doing his own brakes and the dealer was going to charge him way over the top if you think you can do it yourself much better to do so

[Horseynat30101]

thanks for the replies, ive found the post, might just do a quick clean first and replace pads and see how its goes from there

[Guest]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWTFcuZo-mg

Forward this video to 4.30 mins on the time line, it will give you a rough idea of the tasks involved.

A couple of tips if you decide to attempt the job yourself, I use small G clamps to hold the individual pistons, these are also a great help in pushing the pistons back in, I bought mine from Wilko for a couple of quid,

Before you push each piston back in give it a light smear with rubber grease (Red Colour)specifically for brake pistons it keeps the pistons corrosion free and keeps the dust seals and piston seals supple, most bike dealers or garages sell little sachets of it for next to nothing, DO NOT use copper slip on pistons and seals as it will swell them, it`s OK on the back of pads and on retaining pins though.

If you watch all the video you will hear the mechanic say that you need to replace the calliper bolts, whilst this is best practice, i don't know of anybody that does, and I never have, but as you are doing the i will leave that up to you

hope this helps

[spunky1976]

the biggest problem i had was getting the pistons out of the monoblock calipers. ended up getting a couple out cleaning bores and changing seals with caliper still attached to lines then block the pistons done in (i used bits of wood) bled system a bit to get a bit of pressure back then pumped others out, didn't use any rubber grease though just used fresh clean brake fluid, was a pain in the ass and took me 4 days but got it done in the end.

haynes manual is great but i found it a little confusing loads of good advice on here though