I'm that guy who says you should always tear down and inspect the MC and calipers on a new-to-you vintage bike and replace the old rubber lines with stainless steel. Manufacturers used to specify replacing the rubber lines every two years, so a 30 year-old bike still sporting the original lines is about 28 years overdue! But like you said, to each his own. Thanks for the video!
JUST FYI: 2 things that I do when I have stopped up lines. 1st, is to take a heat gun to the steel junctions, trying to keep the blunt of the heat off the rubber hose. This helps to begin the break down of the clog. 2nd, snake the lines out with something that should not cause damage to the rubber lines. I use an old "BRAKE or CHOKE CABLE," removed from the plastic sleeve. Take your cutters and cut the lead head off the end of the cable so there is just a chopped cable end. Then, spray some pb blaster or wd 40 into the brake line end that you are going to snake out. This will provide a little lubricant and will help clear the way as the brake cable snake begins to move into the line. Insert and begin to twist/push and continue to do that as you pull back about 1/2" in a poking method, until you have reached the clog and removed the debris and stoppage. Sometimes it can take a bit to get freedom, but this will work. You may have to pull the cable all the way out and snip the end again if it frays to much. The smaller the end, the easier it will penetrate the problem. I know this has helped me a lot of times. Enjoy!
Max, I like your resourcefulness! If you are worried about riding around on 30 year old parts and you can afford to buy everything new you should just get a new bike.
Loved the vid, got to clean the lines on my 1980 kz750H ltd. They were all blocked before the splitter, a good paper clip and air worked just fine. Now waiting for break fluid to come in and hopefully i put the banjo on the master cylinder the right way since theres no notch it belongs in.
good vid, I swap brake parts around all the time, if they fail you still have a rear brake to ride home on. early honda magna master cylinders are the strongest I have found if you want stiff brakes with any line.
I'm going through some old brake lines on my 1981 Suzuki GS750. What I've done so far is bathe them in 10 parts to 1 water and phosphoric acid. This will not harm the plastic and it does loosen up the gunk inside. After that I use the strand of an old sacrificial clutch wire and slowly go in as far as I can. I then use a combo of the clutch wire strand, brake cleaner and air compressor till the wire goes in more than half on each side. You should be good to go after that.
Strongly recommend wearing safety glasses. I got blasted in the eye wih brake fluid. When I told my dad about it he said he did the exact same thing when he was younger.
Yeah I blew out the caliper reservoir in this video, but I only take the thing apart if its seized. I love the entire XT line, every single model. Can't go wrong!
Hey, Max. I know this question isn't about brake bleeding problems, but on my Suzuki bandit I can't get the brake pad screws off because the previous owner stripped them. I was wondering if you had any ideas. They are what hold the brake pad pins in and are flat head screws. Thanks, David. Great video, by the way :)
hey max, what do you think of the Suzuki tu250x? i'm thinking of picking one up as a first bike for commuting to work on. flat land ~8 miles each way. Love that vintage style
You can take it apart, free it and clean it out, but at the least you will probably need a rebuild kit because the seals are likely to be toast. Thats why I just replace them
No fronts? You have bigger balls than I do. The only bike I ever rode that didn't have front brakes was that squirrely KZ400 chopper, and it was fishtailing all the time
I have some playlists on the channel, this will be added to the brakes playlist. I used to have a lot more but the youtube reorganization cut me down to only 9 playlists
Rear brakes not working. When last ridden, less than a month ago, brakes worked just fine. It's been parked in non-heated but enclosed garage. rear pedal goes down with very little pressure. Tried bleeding the brakes. A lot of air coming through. But even so it's only building up enough pressure to push more fluid out. Do you think it's the master cylinder or the brake pad cylinders? Front brakes work fine.
have you ever had a front brake that built up pressure over time?. i cant find anything that talks about it. so i thought to ask you. if i leave it for a few days and jack it up. the front tire barely moves. when i undo the bleeder. fluid comes out and front tire moves, wait a few days and jack it up and the front tire is slow again. any ideas?
