Brake Solids

[fudge12]

So the other day I had the front of fudge in the air and spun the tire, and it had a large amount of drag.  Quick price check showed that seal kits for the calipers were only $20 a side, new pads were $25 a set, and I could bypass the anti-dive modules with some galfer stainless lines for about $80.  Ordered all the parts, went away for a week, and put them all in when I got home.  Mostly it was standard r&r, but there were a couple of suprises.  First of all, the brake fluid partially wasn't.  Fluid, that is.  I had bled the brakes lots of times trying to get a firm lever (hey it happens when you get older) so the fluid that was there was good, but the calipers were full of solids.  Ended up giving them some time in the ultrasonic cleaner, plus scraping everything clean with a pick, plus cleaning out the seal channels with a dremel wire wheel.  I chucked a socket that was just undersized in a drill, wrapped a bit of crocus cloth around it and spun the bore clean and shiny.  Also popped the pistons on the lathe and polished them up with a crocus cloth so everything is shiny as new where it counts.  My bike only has 11K, but it's still 30 years old and sitting is hard on them.  Back brake still works fine so I'll leave it for now.
Just a heads up to others with sticking or dragging brakes, sometimes it takes more than just a bleed to fix the problem.

[PaulG]

In '07 (the first summer I had the '92 ABS) I had the same issue with the fronts.  I had  a caliper stick open on me. It was late in the season so I took her off the road, and did the same rebuild with the dental picks.  Haven't needed to touch them since, other than new pads.  Well worth the time and effort

But this week the blue dots go on..... Hopefully.

[X-Ray]

Have a look at what I found..... http://www.fjowners.com/index.php?topic=16012.0

[fudge12]

Yup, mine were way worse than those. That's why I split the calipers and did the full clean/rebuild rather than just the flush.

[X-Ray]

Going to do the rear caliper on the weekend. If the fronts were that bad then I reckon the back could be in similar shape. Letting brake fluid sit for a couple of years etc sure is no good.

[fudge12]

My rear brake is working fine so I'm going to go ahead and assume that the brake fairies have already torn mine apart and fixed everything for me.  However, I did pull both wheels off when I first got the bike and regreased the wheel bearings.  All the grease had also turned to solids.  This means I have to pull the steering neck apart and regrease those, which means why not go ahead and put tapered bearings in.  Give a pig a pancake....

[FJ_Hooligan]

FJs already have tapered roller bearings in the steering head

[fudge12]

Cool.  Still need grease though.  Really shoulda done it when I had the forks out, but hey.  You live you learn.