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Brake not releasing or wheel out of line. (Sigh)


azkaisr

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Hey all:

 

Not sure how I want to describe this problem I noticed today riding home from work. The RT felt "different" as I was commuting to the office this morning. Because AL's great earplugs I didn't hear anything different but the bike seemed to have a different feel. I took a ride from the Airport to our Tempe Office later this afternoon and went without plugs to hear if anything was amiss. Well I heard the sound of something rubbing. Decided best course was to head back to the house and get the my Chrysler 300 for the rest of the day.

 

Got home tonight and up on the center stand I spun the front tire. There is a little rubbing but it is almost uniform all the way around not just a high spot. Not sure how to describe it to you all. It is like 60% around it rubs then free for a bit then rub then free then repeat (I know its a circle Jamie).

 

 

I take off the bags and spin the back tire. It is much less free then I remember it being in neutral and sounds like it is rubbing the back brake as well but it may just be my perception. Should the back tire rotate freely? I mean I can spin it, but if I stop Appling force it stops. There is no momentum carrying it through the arc. Makes me wonder if the brakes are not disengaging.

 

The bike has been running fine. The ONLY thing that happened at all in the past 24 hours that was odd is the fact that I took a speed bump at about 5 mph and the bike really nose ploughed more then I thought it should. I took another one in the same parking lot 10 seconds later and it was fine.

 

Any thoughts?

 

Thanks

 

Kaisr thumbsup.gif

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With disk brakes it is normal to feel some drag from the brakes. I think you need to put your ear plugs back in and stop worrying about it. Are you sure it is different?

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Try giving the rear wheel a good spin, it should spin at least 1 or 2 revolutions. If not it might be the slide pins are dirty and need to be cleaned.

I just had this problem on my RT, I ended up replacing the seals in the caliper because they were bad and not allowing the pistons to retract and were holding pressure against the rotor.

Check and grease the pins on the rear caliper and give it a try. If that doesn't fix it pop out the pistons and clean the seals and pistons up good and put back together, should take care of the problem. Or just replace the seals when your doing it.

Good luck it's an easy job.

Dave thumbsup.gif

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I had this when my 2000 RT was new. Back pad/s wore out at 5K miles. Never had the problem since after changing pads myself and using copper grease where appropriate.

 

Ian

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Les is more

My tech guru smile.gifsays that he would try taking the calipers off of the front, remove the pads and clean the pistons thoroughly by spraying around them with brake cleaner. Keep the key to the bike off. You can use the brake lever to move the pistons out SLIGHTLY to better clean any trapped gunk that may be impeding movement. Don't move them very much or they'll pop out and get brake fluid everywhere. On the 1150, the bleed is more complicated, requiring tank removal, so you don't want to take the pistons out.

 

For the rear, remove the pads and the slide pin, check the pin for wear. If there's just corrosion, clean it, add a thin coating of copper grease, give the rear pistons the same cleaning treatment as the front and reinstall.

 

Take a look in your records to see how long it's been since your brakes were bled. Sometimes a fresh bleed will solve these problems as it also pushes the pistons all the way in and gets rid of the gunk. You could also have air or water in the system giving you some grief.

 

Don't forget to check Ride Planning for the various techdaze coming up. Easy rides for you and you can get out of the heat again. thumbsup.gif

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Thanks Leslie.

 

Bike is now at the shop. It was not brake related. Main bearing in the final drive is the prime suspect. I won't know for a while as they are swamped right now and have some mechanics on vaction.

 

Bummed out but hope I caught it soon enough so that there was not more damage done.

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Bummed out but hope I caught it soon enough so that there was not more damage done.
If it is the crown bearing just starting to go then more than likely it should be an easy and not-too-expensive fix. Don't be bummed... you did exactly the right thing by noticing that something might be wrong and following up with a close check. Your attentiveness may have saved you from a very inconvenient breakdown and a significantly higher repair expense.
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Bummed out but hope I caught it soon enough so that there was not more damage done.
If it is the crown bearing just starting to go then more than likely it should be an easy and not-too-expensive fix. Don't be bummed... you did exactly the right thing by noticing that something might be wrong and following up with a close check. Your attentiveness may have saved you from a very inconvenient breakdown and a significantly higher repair expense.
Funny, I just checked in here to suggest spinning the rear wheel AFTER taking the caliper off to make sure it wasn't the crown bearing causing the slowdown. bncry.gif

 

That doesn't have anything to do with the rubbing on the front rotors, though. confused.gif

 

Good luck with getting your bike back in a timely fashion, and I'd be sure to ask for--nay INSIST on--the new 17 ball bearing when they do the repair! thumbsup.gif

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That doesn't have anything to do with the rubbing on the front rotors, though. confused.gif

 

Good luck with getting your bike back in a timely fashion, and I'd be sure to ask for--nay INSIST on--the new 17 ball bearing when they do the repair! thumbsup.gif

 

Thanks amigo.

 

The front I think is not that big a deal and my buddy who works on his harley and is an engineer says it is fine.

 

I will insist on a new bearing as well. If you would have been in the neighborhood, I would have talked to you about doing this myself. Need to hook up with the Rim Riders. The service guy at the dealer was nice enough. I just want to learn how to do it myself. How hard a fix is it?

 

Danke! thumbsup.gif

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Stan Walker

How hard a fix is it?

 

Replacing the bearing and the seal isn't hard, on a scale of 1 - 10, it's maybe a 5.5.

 

But, adjusting the preload on the taper roller bearing is still a procedure that isn't easy for the shade tree mechanic. Some have advocated just ignoring it, but see the article in this months BMW ON for a different opinion on this.

 

I attempted to make the needed measurements and failed because of a lack of accurate tools for making the measurements. Since then I have purchased everything I think I will need if I ever have to do this again. Except of cource an assortment of shims.

 

Stan

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How hard a fix is it?

 

Replacing the bearing and the seal isn't hard, on a scale of 1 - 10, it's maybe a 5.5.

 

But, adjusting the preload on the taper roller bearing is still a procedure that isn't easy for the shade tree mechanic. Some have advocated just ignoring it, but see the article in this months BMW ON for a different opinion on this.

I agree with Stan that assuming you find nothing chewed up in there (as well as another assumption, see next point) you could do it yourself if you're moderately handy and you want to invest in a few specialty tools (bearing puller, etc.).

 

When I replaced Leslie's crown bearing, I measured the diameter of the new and old bearings and found that they differed less than 5% of the range of allowable variation, so since she had the old original 19-ball bearing and it lasted fine for 110,000 miles, I assumed it had been shimmed correctly from the factory and just reused the old shims and re-installed everything. So far so good! thumbsup.gif

 

The cast housing of the FD varies much more than the tolerances of the bearings, so the original shimming is often all that is needed for any given crown/pinion bearing and housing combination. If you change any one of those factors, then I agree you should carefully remeasure and appropriately re-shim it. You need to initially find out how deep the milled face where the bearing race sits is, relative to the sealed housing cover that tightens down against the housing. This thickness is critical as the pressure of the housing on the crown gear presses on the pinion bearing and any variation will cause problems (the gears not to mate properly and/or shorten either bearing's life or worse).

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