I spent today after work trying to change my rear brake pads to Lyndall Gold. Everything came OFF alright in the beginning...

While trying to inspect my pistons, I had one of the them break it's seal and spill DOT4 all over the place. I cleaned up the area and pressed on...

Getting the pads back on proved to be a slight hassle and the sticky brake-quiet agent got ALL OVER my pads/calipers/hands. Once on, I tightened everything down and - despite my best efforts - the rear caliper still wobbled up and down.

Not to mention...I wasn't quite ready to bleed my brakes, but now have to since I broke the seal on the piston and spilled DOT4.

Are these common "growing pains" or do some people just have to realize they're not mechanically inclined and it's cheaper to have the dealer fix things instead of paying for your botched maintenance?

 

Kudo's to you for pushing on.

First purchase I always make with a bike...the service manual.

With that said, there are some things I would just rather not tackle...most anything can be done with time...but on some jobs I would rather it was someone else's time, not my own.

I would find a local Indy that I trusted before going to the dealer.

 

Growing pains

 

Marinepilot81,

I've botched a few jobs that I have attempted only to learn that in hindsight it would have been cheaper to hire a pro. On the other hand I have succeeded in alot of the jobs I have attempted, some of which I was not convinced I "knew how to complete".

Few expressions that come to mind are. We learn from pain/mistakes and...knowledge is DOING.

I give you credit for taking on that job. I would not have to be honest. I consider myself mechanically inclined but by no means a mechanic.

At this point it's more about how much time the job will take. I don't have a lot of time to allocate to working on my ride at this time, so off to the shop it goes for the time consuming jobs. Seems like you learned a few things along the way. I would have paid someone to deal with brakes because I simply do not have the time to do the job.

Kudos to you.

btw...seems like you got that engine upgrade sorted out. Good for you!

Cheers,

Tom

 

I made the mistake of pushing the brake pedal all the way to the floor with the caliper pulled on my Jeep. Even though I made a mental note before starting to not touch the brake pedal with the caliper pulled. Sometimes if you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough. lol.

Marinepilot,

Was your sig pic taken at "The Eye of the Needle" in the Black Hills? Looks very familiar.

 

More than anything, make sure you get the shoes seated into the springs and that they stay seated as you re-install the caliper. I did the job about a year ago with the help of a more experienced friend, but still botched the job. The shoes probably came out of the springs as we were putting the caliper back on. Seemed to work alright for awhile, but as I was screaming down the highway with a bunch of other friends one day on a semi-long distance tour, I (and one of my buds) noticed a ringing sound coming from my bike. Nudging the rear brake stopped it for a few seconds but it came right back. We pulled over and had a look. All seemed fine except that my rear brake rotor was SUPER hot around the edge. We took it in to the closest HD dealer and the took the caliper apart. They were about to put it back on, saying that nothing was wrong, but upon further inspection, they found that the pads weren't seated correctly in the springs and that the spring was rubbing on the rotor. They bent the misshapen spring back with an needle-nose plier, but said I might need a new one eventually. $70 later I was back on the road. I chalked that up to the price of experience. Will I try it myself, again? Absolutely! Won't learn unless you try. Now I know what to look for and be careful of.

 

Yup, didn't even know it was there. I just came around the corner and said "woah! This place is amazing!"

Eh, I live 1 mile from a dealer. I'll suck up my pride and ask the dealer to fix it haha.

 

There is a easy way to change the brake pads on the non ABS bikes. It shouldnt take no more than a hour for all 3 . I havent tried on a ABS model yet. A Harley mechanic told me how to do this.

 

How do you feel about it today? Over the years if I botched something or ran into a job that stumped me I sleep on it, come back the next day and everything "clicks" after I had a chance to clear my mind.

 

Growing pains for sure..... in the past 35 years I have built several bikes and hot rods from the ground up. I still make mistakes, most of them down right stupid! Like last weekend while installing my UltraCool, I managed to break one of the voltage regulator mounting tabs.......UGH! **** Happens! Then we fix it and try not to do it again.....