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brand new to motorcycles rear brake issue

1K views 14 replies 8 participants last post by  carlramsour 
#1 ·
so i bought a motorcycle a few weeks ago its my very first. rode it a few times ( and unfortunatly laid it over 2 times :'( only going about 3 miles an hour but already replaced both mirrors a front brake lever, and a gear shift lever) the rear brake worked at first but i rode it today and absolutely no rear brake at all and im not sure the first steps to trouble shooting, any have advice or info? thanks for the help
 
#6 ·
ok i went and looked at the brakes again there are no leaks that i can see and i pumped the brakes a lot, the fluid level is good and i just got done bleeding them, around 10-12 pumps and no bubbles even from the beginning, then replaced the fluid. brakes still dont work!?! does anyone know why that would be. this is my first motorcycle but the rear brakes look very simple nothing to them really. i did only bleed them from the caliper though i couldnt find another place to bleed them from on the master cylinder for the rear brakes, could that be it? i thought maybe it was a stuck caliper but wouldnt that not allow the lever to really move at all? the lever moves all the way up and all the way down very easily.
oh and on top of that after i bled them i drove out of the driveway did one u turn in the street and parked it again to check if they were working, got off looked at the brakes again and went to go do another lap and it wouldnt go into gear. it started fine in N but with the cllutch held in all the way when i went into first it just died. repeated the process several times with the same result, even tried going straight to second. rode it about 60 miles this morning and it ran fine moments before that.
 
#9 ·
If it bled ok, and you were able to force fluid through with the master cyl, that sounds ok.
Unless you get initial pressure and then the pedal falls slowly. MC is the suspect then.

If the caliper has not been serviced in a long time, crud can wedge between the piston and calliper body,
crystals can form behind the seals and make them tighter or the pins that the shoes slide on could be notched.

If you're good with wrenching, it's a fairly simple job. Just keep it clean.
A brass brush will be good for cleaning the pistons and seal grooves.
The seals are directional. Keep an eye on that.
New copper washers for the banjo bolts on the line ends would be good.

Sometimes the inner layer of rubber in the brake line can delaminate and shut the line closed under pressure.
That's not as likely if it bleeds alright.

Is there pad material left, or do you hear grinding? :p
 
#10 · (Edited)
so basicallly take off the caliper give it a good cleaning and put it back like i found it? and like i said it bleeds fine but theres just no stopping power at all, how hard is it to replace the MC and brake lines? seems straight forward but you never know.
i dont hear anything the rear brake doesnt seem to engage at all from what i can tell i can lay the lever alll the way down the whole ride or never touch it, it doesnt slow at al l
 
#11 ·
When you were bleeding the rear brake, did fluid squirt out of the bleeder valve when you pushed down on the rear brake lever?

Does pressure build in the brake pedal if you continually push down on the brake? If it does, your caliper is suspect. If it doesn't, than you've likely got air in your line or maybe some of the linkage from your brake pedal is missing/broken.

No offense or anything, but do you know how to properly bleed brakes without introducing air into the system?
 
#12 ·
yes i opened the valve pushed and held the lever down closed the valve and released the lever about 10 times and every time fluid squirted out in a smooth stream with no air bubbles. ive never worked on a motorcycle but its the same process as with cars unless im missing something. is there another bleeder valve that i missed by the MC or just the one by the caliper? The rear brake worked fine when i first started ridiing it about a week and a hallf ago so im going to take the brakes off give them a good cleaning and see how that works out for me thanks for all the help again guys and ill keep you updated.
 
#14 ·
yes i opened the valve pushed and held the lever down closed the valve and released the lever about 10 times and every time fluid squirted out in a smooth stream with no air bubbles.<SNIP>
Hate to be a stickler for details (ok, I actually love details.. just mean I don't intend to sound mean), but you should be pressing on the brake pedal/lever before opening the bleeder.

carlramsour said:
just got done bleeding them, around 10-12 pumps and no bubbles even from the beginning, then replaced the fluid.
Reading this logically, it sounds like "I bled the brakes, then replaced the fluid", as in "Took out the old fluid and poured in new fluid without bleeding again." Obviously, it makes the most sense if you just mean you flushed all the old fluid through the system while pouring new fluid into the reservoir, and kept bleeding until new fluid was coming out of the bleed valve, but that's not how it reads.
 
#15 ·
I didnt replace all of the fluid in the brakes I was just bleeding them to see if the problem was air in the lines, so i was just replacing the fluid that came out in the process

i didnt have time to take them off today because of work but im going over tomorrow to take a look at them again.
:-[ i feel really dumb bc its been quite some time since ive bled brakes and i did them wrong. ill try it again tomorrow (the right way this time) and see if that was the problem the whole time. if not that bad boys comin off
 
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