Episode IX - Brakes (calipers, masters)
It's been nearly a month with no update. I'm not entirely sure why, but a two-man project does require that two men actually be available together. I'm tinkering here and there; my son tinkers here and there. Brakes have been on the back burner for months. The parts were stripped, cleaned, painted, and partially rebuilt since perhaps mid-January.
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But there's no real point in having a bike that can stop IF it can't actually go, and that pesky water pump and timing belt swap had to happen first.
Finally, this Friday late afternoon and Saturday afternoon it was time to make some progress on the stopping parts of the ride.
Friday Mid-Afternoon
Two tasks on tap: Get the bikes out of the shed so we can ride; get brakes on the naked project.
We just had to get our bikes out, as it has been in the 40s this week. (Of course, the high tomorrow will be around 25.) After jockeying the Wing out of the middle of the shed and moving lots of odds and ends out of the way, we were ready to back my son's bike out to the door to see if we can bring her to life in '21. After a few rounds of cranking, she roared to life. Once semi-warm, we shut her down and eased her down the ramp, across the yard, and to the driveway. Next was my bike. Same routine. Same result.
Rear master. This baby is a one-year master cylinder, with the first year of linked brakes on the GoldWing. My son stripped the cylinder and cleaned it. I painted it with our red caliper paint - because I had it. Awesome. Until I botched the install and inadvertently cross-threaded the master bolting on the brake line. Those things are practically unobtanium, and I somehow didn't pay enough attention to notice I was forcing a bit too hard. (Steel into aluminum.) F---.
Not having a tap and die set, I cursed some more before contemplating a trip to the hardware store. Then I remembered that we have a donor '83 Interstate tucked in the corner. I wedged myself between the wall and the bike. 20 minutes (and several bloody knuckles) later, I emerge with another rear master. (I'll save thread repair on our pretty red rear master for another day - and another '83 GoldWing project.)
Thankfully, the donor's master piston moved freely, sprung back, etc. Over at the bench, I quickly disassembled it. (Ooh. Gunky.) I grabbed my last can of brake cleaner and got busy cleaning. I then disassembled our freshly rebuilt master and swapped over the guts. -to be continued.
Calipers. Meanwhile, my son was busy finishing assembly of the calipers and got the rear mounted up by the time I had a replacement master in hand.
By then it was about 5:45, and I wanted to make sure we got in at least a short ride before dinner. The GoldWing brakes could wait.
Saturday Afternoon
Having learned some "rear master mounting" lessons the hard way on Friday, I did NOT bolt the master to the frame until AFTER I had the brake line nice and tight.
I really think my issue was the angle of the dangle, with the hard brake line not quite lining up with the threaded hole in the master. Having the master bolted to the frame offered no wiggle room and I stripped a couple threads before I even really noticed.
Anyway, second time's the charm. I jockeyed the master in behind the frame, up under the brake pedal, and into position. I hooked up the reservoir and carefully primed the master. Then, ever so carefully, I hand-threaded the brake line a few turns before grabbing the 10mm and working it gently. Once in reasonably snug, I bolted the master onto the frame before fully tightening the brake line down. I then cleaned the brake fluid from the priming action with some simple green and water, topped off the reservoir, and called it: rear and right brake are ready to be bled.
Calipers. My son busied himself with final assembly of the front calipers, as well as mounting. It's been months since we pulled the brakes off the bike, so he had to scramble here and there to locate a missing bolt or three. In the end, though, he got them on. Red calipers might be an acquired taste, but I think they look pretty nice.
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We didn't get the brakes bled this weekend, but we're ready to go when we get some more time together.
We DID mount up a CB750 bar I picked up on eBay the other week. It's a much better fit than the sport bike bars we mounted about a month ago. Those sport bars really call for shorter throttle cables, a shorter clutch cable, shorter brake lines, and more. They didn't hit the false tank, but that was about their only virtue - aside from being free because we already had them. The CB750 bars will allow a little more upright posture, and they really don't require changes to cables and lines.