Project Z750 part 12

Okay, I've been to halfords and bought a small bottle of brake fluid, so now I can get the pistons out of the front caliper, and start cleaning them up. first thing is to fill up the fluid resevoir and bleed the new fluid through. as the front has two calipers, bleeding the new fluid through is being a pan, so i had a brainwave! attach the front caliper to the rear system, as that is a lot less brake hose and no second caliper to make things harder.

of course bleeding the brakes with the caliper off the bike is not something i would recommend. I had one hand holding the caliper still so that i could turn the spanner on the bleed nipple. my other hand was on the spanner to loosen and tighten the bleed nipple, which left my foot to press on the the brake pedal whilst trying to synchronise all three limbs.

okay, this isn't working, so I've ordered a brake bleed helper (which will make the final refit easier) and i'll try again when that arrives.

while I'm waiting, I take the pistons out of the free caliper and start polishing them. with the autosol i found, they are cleaning up a treat. there is some really stubborn crud on the rear and i suspect i'll get some on the front as well. sure enough a lot of the crud comes off easily, but i am really going to have to work to get the pistons completely clean.

Comments

Triathlon Training in the new year

So, my 2019 training has got off to a good start. I'm running regularly and my knees seem to be holding up. I've got a training plan to get me to a middle distance triathlon in September and I am managing the run distances I have set myself. I need to find some longer cycling routes to work and ones with a few hills too, but that shouldn't be a problem. my weekly cycling distance is okay, I just need to move to get my ebike to be doing less of the work. last week I did use my normal commuter bicycle and managed the whole four days as well as my runs, so that was a really good sign. Swimming won't be an issue, I have always found that to be the easy part of a triathlon (not that I'm fast, but I can keep going, and I did manage to swim the distance within the cut off time when I tried the ironman 70.3 last time) The main worry about going longer is my knees. I've got a 10K booked in late January which will test my knees out and I'm hoping that they hold ...

Project Z750 part 16

The piston puller has arrived. it looks like a pair of pliers, but works opposite so that when you press the handles the "nose" of the pliers expands. the idea is that you put the nose into the piston, grip very hard and turn and pull the piston so that it comes out. the theory is great, but actually using one isn't. in use you are trying to grip as hard as you can, and at the same time trying to pull the piston out of the caliper (as well as maybe turning it if it's stuck like mine). it took a herculean effort to get one of the pistons out, I was gripping as if my life depended on it, trying to twist the piston and pull it out of the caliper. when it turned (a little) it gave me renewed hope of getting both pistons out, and eventually the piston was out, so just one more left. so now on to the fifth and final brake caliper piston. I put the piston puller tool into the caliper, gripped with all my might (no laughing please) and twisted. Well something mo...

Project Z750 part 14

I thought that some photos would be in order rather just all that plain old boring text, so here is a front caliper and it's pistons: This is the caliper before I managed to get the slide off. the pistons show a before polishing started and part way through. Here are the pins that hold the pads into the calipers. again you can see the before and part polished (I hope you can tell which is which) I thought I would show a picture of the rear caliper in pieces: there are more bits for a single caliper than I realised. The rear is a single piston caliper. and one of the front calipers. the front calipers are twin pistons (as I hope you noticed) I dont think that I will be able to remove all of the corrosion from the caliper pistons, so it looks like I will be getting all new caliper pistons. I'll order them once everything has been cleaned thoroughly.

My Ramblings

Search This Blog