Rotors, Pads, Steel Brake lines, Speed Bleeders

[imatt]

The FZ is 49 miles shy of 33k miles. Almost every week this summer, I have taken her out to the mountains for a near 200 mile round trip which naturally is mostly filled with curves, corners, and twisties. After my last trip this week I have increasingly becoming annoyed with the amount front brake lever travel that's necessary to apply the front brakes. My thinking was that the pads are just becoming worn down far enough that the master cylinder needs a top off and maybe a quick bleed to put the lever back to normal.

....What I actually did was just replace practically everything.

I have been sitting on a set of Braking brand wave rotors for about 9 months now and decided I wanted to go ahead and put them on the bike(Picked them up for $100 each off ebay). Went ahead and ordered all the other things to do the job. Carbone Lorraine XBK5 sintered pads, Galfer steel braided lines, and a set of speed bleeders to make life easier.

I had terrible luck trying to remove the bolts that hold on the rotors, had to break out the drill and vice grips

I had already ordered these bad boys to replace the rusting, unsightly hardware. Good thing too because between both sides, 5 of them had to be drilled!!

All Done!

Previous owner told me he installed EBC pads. I don't know the make of them but I quite enjoyed them. I figured I would try a different brand of pad, try something else. Anyone have thoughts on the XBK5's or prefer something different after using them on their bike?

 

[TownsendsFJR1300]

Looks good!

The stock pads you pulled are still within spec; .18" , (4.5mm) pad thickness is the limit (Yamaha lets them get way down there...) (Hope you cleaned those pistons before pushing them back in the bores, pretty nasty)

The wear on the pads will NOT give you longer lever travel. More brake fluid will simply fill the brake calipers (and the master cylinder level go lower). Air in the system will give more lever travel and obviously affect braking.

A big help would be getting rid of the stock rubber lines. There's just way to much expansion in the lines.

I put a dual (two separate lines to the MC) HEL set of Stainless Steel brake lines on mine (rear too) and there is a very noticable difference. Less travel, firmer brake lever.

An entire set is a little over $100 and well worth it...


If you still have the original brake seals in those calipers, I wuld look at replacing those. Yamaha recommends seal replacement EVERY TWO YEARS, brake hoses-EVERY FOUR YEARS

New rubber seals allow the brake pads to fully retract, less heat on the pads and rotors when not applied (besides longer life of all the brake componants)


For others looking to remove the rotors, Yamaha does use loctite on the rotor retaining bolts so some heat to the bolts before leaning on them should help..

 

[ChanceCoats123]

+1000! When I upgraded my forks to the R6 forks, I also did the caliper upgrade (obviously), but probably the best part was the dual steel braided lines. It was a bit tricky for my first ever brake bleed (and I did it without a speed bleeder), but I figured it out eventually and the front brake is incredibly firm now!

 

[FinalImpact]

From the original post; I've found that simply getting the air out really matters.

IMO - vacuum bleeding is not helpful for anything but filling a new line set or rebuilt calipers. Pressure bleeding forces the bubbles to condense and tapping the caliper from the bottom dislodges bubbles allowing them to travel out the bleeder.

• While holding pressure on the hydraulics, Tap upwards on the bottom of the caliper with a dead blow hammer or hardwood block and then crack the bleeder. This will release the trapped air from the calipers interior walls.

JM2C.. .. ..
Also, complete how to on bleeding.... Brake Bleeding 101

 

[68charger]

Hi imatt, looks perfect very good job.Dou you use LocTite to fasten the new bolts?

And one Question.

Fits the brake calipers from a S2 to a S1 fork? Or I must change fork?

 

[imatt]

And one Question.

Fits the brake calipers from a S2 to a S1 fork? Or I must change fork?

I did some digging through the forum and from what I have found they are not compatible between the generations. The S1 has a narrower distance between the two mount points, where as the distance is greater on the S2's. Umm... everyone here always suggests converting to R6 forks, but if you can find a forum member selling their S2 forks because they completed the conversion, you might strike a deal. The R6 conversion sounds really appealing to me but being that this is my first bike I have decided that the FZ will only be with me a little while longer as I aspire to pick up a r6 or 636 around tax time.

-Matt