So I was on my way to work and doing about 110ks and both front brakes locked up on me. I got to the side of the road and took my pads out to get home now the Q's. 1. Dus the T piece have a valve in it 2. can you get rebulid kits for the master 3. Is it pos that there is **** in the master I put clean dot 4 in it about 3000km ago Has any one had this prob bethor if so how do you fix it
This brought a bunch of questions to my mind, so bear with me.... A. What do you mean "The brakes locked up on me"? As in they just applied themselves to the point of bringing you to a complete stop and no more forward motion was possible? B. When you say that you "Added clean DOT4 3000kms ago", did you completely flush the system to be sure that all of the DOT 3 was out? C. Were new pads installed at the time that you added the new brake fluid? D. You removed the pads? WTF!!! This is (IMO) a very dangerous thing to do. I have more, but I'm having issues getting past the part about removing the pads, so I'll try to answer your questions... 1. Does the T piece have a valve in it? Not to my knowledge. 2. Can you get rebulid kits for the master cylinder? I beleive that you still can. 3. Is it possible that there is **** in the master cylinder? Yes and see my question under letter B.
I agree it was dangerous but I had no way to get my bike home. A. Yes no more forward motin that was dangerous to B.Yes I flushed out all the old dot3 C. No new pads were not put in but thay are good D.I was not leving my bike at the side of a contry road but it was DANGEROUS and dont recomend it at all. I think it was just number 3 cos when I took the pipe of the master it had all black gunk on the spring and cylinder so I just cleaned it out with the comp air and washed it now it's drying out hope it works <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/icon_sad.gif" alt="" title="Sad" /><!-- s -->
I'd be putting my bets on that the pistons in the caliper have actually bound, which means that one or two of them are constantly squeezing the disc. Either way it's time for a caliper and master cylinder rebuild (or atleast severe clean and reassemble!). I'll agree with FZR_Dude that the 'look ma, no brakes' trick was probably not smart but yes it did get you home. It could've also seen you in some pretty nasty trouble. First thing i'd do would be to pop the caliper pistons, pull the calipers apart and then clean clean clean them. Inspect the seals and if their tatty or damaged then you'll need to replace them. Otherwise, just reassemble and make sure their spotless. Then do similar for the master cylinder. Of course part of this process is going to be a proper flush and bleed of the system, so at the end of it all should be well.
The thing was it was both sides not just one thats why I think its the master but im still going to do a full system flush as well. ps thanks for all your help guys
Well it could've just been a horrible coincidence they both bound on at the same time, but if you'd just pulled the brakes on firmly and come to a complete stop it's highly likely. When was the last time you completely cleaned the brakes? (I mean the full drain, disassemble, clean till spotless, reassemble.) I seem to do this more often than most mechanics think is sensible, but on the upside i know my brakes are working flawlessly - and in the event i actually need every little bit of braking power, i'll have it at my disposal.
I was just riding along and thought I ran out of petrol cos I had not power. So I droped into 5th and then 4th but when I went to 4th I gave it a rev with the cluch in and the motor was fine. Thats went to 3rd then 2nd so I had enough power to move the bike to the side of the road wich was gravel so when I hit that the bike turned into a snowe mobile. I have not cleaned the calipers out since i'v had it but i did drane all the old stuff out. The master had these 2 or 3 bits of crystalised stuff in it. I think it was just the return blocked up in the master cylinder.
make sure you don't overfill the reservior. brake fluid expands when the brakes get hot, overfill means there's no room to expand, so instead, the expansion pressure can self apply the brakes.
