Blue spots finally cleaned out.

[X-Ray]

Well, after squeezing the front brake lever for weeks on the recently acquired '94, hoping that the FJ fairies would magically fix the brakes I decided to get stuck into it. First thing I did was get a proper Yamaha master cylinder kit, and a pair of long bent circlip pliers. These pliers are great and get right down into the bore to release that circlip that isn't coming out otherwise. This bike had been sitting for a while before I bought it, as the brake fluid had turned brown and there was stacks of.... algae? in the M/C, lines and elsewhere. After fitting the new kit the lever action was great with no notchiness, new fluid and a quick bleed, and wow, the brake lever was nearly rock solid. Probably too rock solid actually.

Front wheel wouldn't turn at all, time to give the pistons a clean. They were pretty grunged up and I intended just to pop them out halfway, quick scrub and push them back in. One of them did pop right out and I'm glad it did as there was a complete horror story going on behind it, lovely orange algae type particles everywhere. That was it, each caliper off, pop the pistons one at a time, flush the crap out, check the seals, clean up the pistons and pop them back in. Only took 15 mins to get full pressure back on these calipers which I thought would take much longer due to their design, (early blue spots with balance pipe). Now the brakes are good, no locking, just need some new tyres in the next week or two, roadworthy inspection and registration. Then its finally time to RIDE IT!

A couple of the photos show the grunge in the caliper, and the bucket I was flushing the calipers in, unbelievable. Something weird with these calipers I noticed is there looks like a drilled bleed screw location directly opposite the main bleed screw. However, these holes look to be filled with a strong glue/rubber. It would have been a great spot to have a bleed screw to help get rid of air from that side of the caliper. Looking at images of these calipers elsewhere they all seem to be the same,