What did you do to your motorcyle today?

[Kurt]

Went for spur of the minute to Keremos and back on the new Goldwing. Averaged 20,6 km. per litre. Excellent mileage for such a large bike. Almost no traffic on the highway. The automatic was great. A slight shower by Hope, but once past the Slide the weather was good.

[Bucko]

 

[Galactica]

Installed Dynatek coils on my KZ Ltd.  Hopefully it will help with a rough running condition when the engine is hot after an extended run.  I suspect the issue is with the cheap aftermarket coils from overseas.  So far it starts and idles as usual, can’t really notice a difference.  Time will tell if the issue is still there after a long hot run.

[hardrockminer]

You might want to do this mod.  I did...voltage to the coils is now over 12V.

https://www.wgcarbs.com/index.php/using-joomla/extensions/components/content-component/article-categories/89-coils

[Galactica]

Yup.  Done the wired george mod on all my KZs for years.  I hope the issue with hot running is that the cheap offshore coils don’t work well when hot.  We’ll see.

[Bucko]

Time to put some new brake lines on the Voyager and thought it would be a great time for a brake system rebuild.

1/ Fluid Looks a bit off but I flushed last spring so I think it's just the window that's manky:

2/ Old school single pot slaves:

3/ Brake system hydraulics comes off in one piece:

[Bucko]

1/ I used the master cylinder to move the pistons out of their bores as far as I dared (to avoid spilling brake fluid on everything), then disconnected the lines, poured the fluid out the banjo bolt holes, and used this trick to pull the pistons out:

2/ Pistons look good as new after some very light metal polish:

3/ Was prepared to change the slave cylinder piston seals but on close inspection, nothing wrong with the originals so I reused them.  I've successfully reused good condition seals many times in the past without any issues:

[Bucko]

1/ Seal groves required little to no cleaning - never experienced that before - they're usually full of gray crud - crystallized brake fluid?  Also never seen the 'inside' of the caliper painted before - maybe the paint limits formation of the grey crusty stuff?  Wonder what paint Kawasaki used that is brake fluid proof?

2/ Cleaning inside of Master Cylinder fluid window with Q-Tip:

3/ Master cylinder disassembled.  Lot easier than some of my old Honda M/Cs.  There was some corrosion on the plunger which cleaned up easily enough and the seals look good.  Also some corrosion on piston bore which I couldn't get a good photo of.  I polished it out as best I could with metal polish and a ball of cloth.  I think it'll be fine (it was working well enough before the rebuild) but I'll consider a new MC or getting it sleeved if it's goofy.

[Bucko]

1/ Anti-rattle pad springs in good shape.  I was going to install new scintered metal pads but was surprised and pleased to see the OEM pads are scintered and have lots of life so I re-used them.  The new pads can sit on the shelf a while longer:

2/ Brake caliper rebuilt, greased and ready to install:

3/ Brake Line kit came with new banjo bolts but the kit bolts are often shorter with fewer threads than OEM so I always try to clean up and re-used original bolts if they're in reasonable shape which these one were.  Bolt on the left is from kit - right is OEM:

[Bucko]

1/ Pulled the hose retaining hardware and rubber sleeves off the old hoses to use on the new bespoke braided SS set from Ray at Apex Brakes:

2/ New lines, ready to go back on.  

I filled with new fluid, bled at each of the banjo bolts and at the caliper bleeder.  Noticeable improvement over the old brakes and after a few days of riding, I'll do a couple more bleeds to get the last little bubbles of air out.

I have a new SS line for the rear brake as well but getting the rear wheel off is a bit of an ordeal so I'll wait to replace that line (and do a thorough disassembly/clean) until I need a new rear tire.

[Wheels]

Very good information Dave and thank you for sharing.

[754]

 What is the hoseclamp doing in that pic ?

[Bucko]

What is the hoseclamp doing in that pic ?

Clamping on to the piston so I had something to grab to pull it out.

[754]

I just pump them out with grease. Apparently 6 piston or any double acting are harde to get out, I see tools that grab them internally and twist them out..

[Bucko]

Yes, grease works, but it's a bit messy, and waste of good grease.  Air also works but I'm not a big fan of that as the pistons can go ballistic.

Edit: should point out that in my case, the pistons were not stuck in their bores, rather I merely needed a way to grab hold of them to pull them out.   Stuck pistons require a different level of effort and ingenuity.