Machine Shop Idea: Oil Pump Cover

[JCainFJ]

I have weighed all 3 variations of the early monoblocks and the goldspots are the lightest by 100g a set. I'll have to find a pair of the 4 piston and a set of the 6 piston split calipers and measure them too.

[simi_ed]

Sorry Jon, you're just part of the 'group think'.     

[RD56]

I'm with Ed on this mod. If the split calipers are just as good as the monoblocks Yamaha would still be using them on the R1.

C'mon guys there's only one way to settle this and that's to send PeeWee to the drag strip with bikes set up as you are discussing and turn him loose. 60 to zero times will tell you pretty quickly what works, what's better, what's not. As much as I hate to admit it I think Noel is spot on with much of his discourse. I guarantee you that if you pull the lever hard enough on a one pot, two pot, six pot caliper, you can lock up the front brake of any FJ. As to whether a split or monoblock caliper is better, I'll give the $100 that I was going to give Randy to anyone who can come up with a picture of a properly torqued split caliper flexing. What I will say is that I am glad that technology is always advancing new ideas that make bikes better, otherwise we wouldn't have anything to spend our money on. And that's what it really comes down to isn't it...MODITIS. Porsche did a great thing for their customers as well as their bottom line when they introduced ceramic brakes as an option on their production cars. A $25000 option. Did it stop a race car faster. They said it did. What they didn't say was that driving your Turbo 5 miles to the grocery store didn't heat up the rotors enough to stop better than cast iron. People couldn't order them fast enough.

As to losing a few grams of static weight, it sure doesn't make my body feel any better. Now pounds is all together different. Give me a better, lighter rotor anytime, give me a better pad compound, give me a progressive feeling lever. In many ways, I actually like the feel of a well bled rubber hose. Having said all of this, I was one of the first to drill holes in my expensive Campagnolo bicycle components back in the 70's, bought a case of some Teflon additive that made my 350 LC faster than anyone else. Bought a Ducati because it had Brembo calipers. Owned an Audi before they started making their own emergency exits in garages across the country.

Keep that shit comin' because I wanna be broke when I die. As long as it gets my unscathed knee and elbow pucks a little closer to the tarmac, bring it on. Keep dreamin, keep the FJ alive for ever. AMEN!

Ricardo il Magnifico

[FJ_Hooligan]

Why did all the manufactures of larger bikes go to 4 and even 6 caliper pads? Even if there is no improvement in braking force there has to be a reason. I am sure it cost more to do it. If you have more area pressing on the disk which is more drag you can use less pressure. Less pressure means less wear. Those pads and disks are going to last longer.  Dave

I believe Noel has nicely explained this in past discussions.   With a single piston you have a more or less large square pad.  With multi-piston calipers you can use a more rectangular pad which will apply force further out on the diameter of the disk.   Being farther out gives the multi-piston pad more "lever arm" which means it takes less pad pressure (force) to produce a given amount of braking force compared to the single piston design.  Thus for a given pressure the multi-piston design is more efficient at converting that pressure to a higher stopping force.

The coefficient of friction of the brake pad is the dominant factor in providing stopping power.  Good pads on the old 2-piston calipers were the best brakes I ever had.

[simi_ed]

Sorry Jon, you're just part of the 'group think'.     

It looks like Jorge has been sucked into the group think as well.

Note the MONO-BLOC Brembo caliper. I wonder why he's not running split calipers?

[fj1289]

Wow!  Brake calipers are the new oil!!!   

[andyb]

What's the point in upgrading to super fancyshit brakes if you're still using a 16" biasply tire designed in the prewar years?

[fj1289]

I'm way out of touch with the 16 inch tire offerings 

So you're saying there are no radial 16 fronts?   

[56 CHEVY]

I thought Avon made a 16 in radial front tire.

[TexasDave]

I'm running Avon Azzaro radials front and rear.  Dave

[andyb]

I'm way out of touch with the 16 inch tire offerings 

So you're saying there are no radial 16 fronts?   

Any modern, sticky ones?   No.

The azaro is a rock hard touring tire that's now been available for seven years.  Compares really, really badly against newer stuff.

[TexasDave]

  


The azaro is a rock hard touring tire that's now been available for seven years.  Compares really, really badly against newer.........   Talking about tires is starting to sound like talking about oil. Alf swears Sport Demons aren't very good and most other people think they are great. My experience with Azaros is they do stick very well but wear out fast. I have 5000mi on the rear and its only got about 20% left and most of the time I ride like a Grandpa(which I am). I think these tires are tires in name only. What I mean is tire mfgs are continuously probably changing rubber compounds in individual names like Sport Demon and Azaros. I hope they are changing for the better. I would bet these names are not the same tires they were even a couple of years ago.  Dave

[JCainFJ]

"Sorry Jon, you're just part of the 'group think'."     

I've done my own research (starting back in 1996) on this, pads-lines-6pots-axial mastercylinders-radial MC's-gen. 1,2,and 3 monoblocks-scotchbrited rotors-bead blasted rotors-Brembo MC's-and now aftermarket rotors.  I've done my homework and my current setup, gold monoblocks-braded lines-zx6r 19mm radial MC-fresh degassed DOT 4 fluid-bead blasted EBC rotors and Sumitomo GG pads on the street or EBC HH pads for track days, works better then any other combination I've tried.

If you want to run a drum brake on your FJ, be my guest.

[X-Ray]

My view is they offer huge improvement in bling and bugger all in efficiency
IMHO of course.

Noel

Hey, I'm all for a bit of bling on the FJ,  .  I got my headers ceramic coated partly for the inherit heat containment benefits, but also because its a shiny, easy to look after finish. As long as I don't go nuts and have the FJ looking like a Thai Lady Boys scooter, its all good.     

[Steve_in_Florida]

I uploaded some pictures of the oil pump covers into a gallery I created.

These are our first and second attempts, using some old aluminium stock we had around.

This part might better be done on a lathe, but I'm trying to learn the process using the machines and material at hand.

Steve