| Author | Message | ||
     Duanelr |
Early in the morning on my way to coffee the rear brake seized up. I pulled over, let it cool and rode on. When I got back home I purged the entire system of the old fluid and replaced it with new. I thought that was it and rode another 200+ miles. This morning on my way to coffee the brake seized at the very same spot as before. WTF? (FYI, I let it cool then after coffee rode hard and aggressive through tight twisties with other motorcycles I met. No rear-break problems on the ride.) I've read past posts about the seizing rear brake but didn't see any that gave a conclusive reason why. Does anyone have more light to shed on this? | ||
| Mikeymike |
I dont know why it does, but I just pushed my brake pads in and stopped using it. It didnt ever really work well anyway. | ||
| Puddlepirate |
I don't know why, but my rear master cylinder seized up when mine locked about a mile from home. Without a decent place to pull over (lots of traffic and no shoulder), I had to slowly lane split home and the rotor was a purple and gold when I stopped the bike. Ebay master cylinder and a new set of pads and I was back in business. I rarely use mine anyway, and mainly when not braking hard on the front. | ||
| Duanelr |
A lot of those old posts devolved into opinions about how to use the rear brake. I hope to avoid those topics and concentrate on why it locks up in the first place. | ||
| Jaredc01 |
Are you running stock exhaust? | ||
| Duanelr |
Puddlepirate, when yours locked, was the weather cold and the exhaust have steam in it? | ||
| Duanelr |
Jaredc01, yep, stock exhaust. (I like it quiet) | ||
| Puddlepirate |
Nope, I live in Puerto Rico for now and I was sweating my ass off coming home from work in the 90 degree weather (a month or 2 ago). The bike was more than warmed up, as I had been riding for about 10 miles before that. I've had a Jardine pipe on the bike for a couple years, so it wasn't with the stock exhaust. Again, mine was from the master cylinder locking in place. Siezed. | ||
| Jaredc01 |
If your stock exhaust doesn't have turnouts, it's possible the exhaust was contributing to the issue. Whether it's what caused it or not I'm not sure, but there have been people with rear brake issues due to exhaust gasses. Dean was telling me a story about his issues when I went out to check out his shop. | ||
| Puddlepirate |
I've heard of calipers seizing due to soot and whatnot building up, but I've seen a couple of master cyl failures other than mine on here too. | ||
| Mikeymike |
I know my problem wasnt from exhaust gases. I had the Jardine exhaust with a turnout I made for it since the bike was about brand new. 5000 miles later, rear brake seized. | ||
| Green1 |
I put 2 rear master cylinders on mine,3rd time bought a used Brembo one on Ebay and problem was solved | ||
| Jdugger |
The OEM MC isn't a very high quality part and is known to seize up. For what it's worth, mine seized up and I never use it. | ||
| Reepicheep |
Dragging pads or warped rotor? | ||
| Smoke4ndmears |
Brembo is the solution. http://www.badweatherbikers.com/buell/messages/290 431/669050.html Also, a brake return spring along the lines of this: http://www.fasstco.com/shop/rear-brake-return-spring I forget what brand I have on mine though... (Message edited by smoke4ndmears on April 08, 2014) | ||
| Nuts4mc |
brake fluid is hygroscopic (it absorbs water)...like Jdugger (the Wizard of Whoa) sez the component is not of the best quality. the water in the fluid causes corrosion and the small piston seizes in the bore. 1) if you can get the M/C apart and clean it and replace the fluid with some high quality stuff ( Motul) it may help. 2) make/buy some exhaust turn outs to direct the exhaust heat away from the brake system...it may also help the differential in temp and high humidity in some places causes condensation and the water corrodes the components in the M/C. | ||
| Hughlysses |
If you're installing new brake pads, and don't clean the brake dust off the caliper pistons before pushing them back into the caliper, it will cause this problem. DAMHIK. | ||
| Duanelr |
 WTF? Why not? So lets say the piston, the teensy-weensy little bit that is exposed, does have schmootz on it, not allowing it to retract, or maybe the seal is fouled. You can't clean that shit off? | ||
| No_rice |
For what it's worth, mine seized up and I never use it. from the original threads on this subject, that was my personal conclusion as to why they seemed to be having problems in the first place. people for some reason barely used them, then did and it acted up, be it from grime build up or whatever. but the ones that seemed to use the rear more often, even if just lightly, didnt seem to have any problems arise. i personally have never had a problem. still running original brake pads even. i may not use it as heavily as the front, but it gets a "brake check" frequently when settling things down. | ||
| Dennis_c |
Don't go to the same coffee shop your 1125 is trying to tell you something. 30,000 miles never had any trouble with mine I use both brakes all the time. | ||
| Mikeymike |
I used my rear brake every time I stopped the bike. It still only lasted 5000 miles before having a problem. Its just probably a bad design. | ||
| No_rice |
hmm, neither of my 1125's have had any brake problems, and they have been used hard. | ||
| Jdugger |
Neither of the rear brake components are all that great, IMHO. The MC does tend to stick/seize, and the rear caliper is not rebuildable. It's made worse by the fact the rear brake is such an afterthought for most of us, so it doesn't see the constant supply of fresh fluid and TLC the front gets. Another problem with the rear brake is the pin-on-piston arrangement -- that little spring wire tends to fail on the brake pads themselves, and eventually you will actually wear through the pin hanger on the piston! At one point, I had a small stack of rear brake pads that the hanger wire had broken on but the pads were basically unused. I've looked at doing the Brembo upgrade for both the rear MC and Caliper. There are Brembo pieces for both that use the exact same mounting set up and will work, and they aren't that expensive, really. I'm confident this is the right long-term answer for these bikes and for someone who is experiencing rear brake issues. | ||
| Hughlysses |
WTF? Why not? So lets say the piston, the teensy-weensy little bit that is exposed, does have schmootz on it, not allowing it to retract, or maybe the seal is fouled. You can't clean that shit off? I can't imagine why, unless they just don't sell the parts, but you don't have to "rebuild" it to wipe the brake dust off the piston. You just don't want that dust to get past/under the dust seal and O-ring when you push the pistons back into the caliper prior to installing new pads. An old tennis shoe string makes a good tool for the job. Wrap it around the piston and polish until shiny. | ||
| Brokengq |
When you go to clean that dust/soot off the piston, make sure whatever brake cleaner you use it non-chlorinated. The chlorinated stuff will ruin the dust seal. Brakes are important IMHO  I like going fast, but stopping it important. I tend to bleed all of my fluid out and put in fresh stuff at least once a year on all of my bikes. | ||
| Nobuell |
Jim, Do you happen to know the Brembo part numbers? Thanks | ||
| Smoke4ndmears |
Nobuell, scroll up and look at my post. Should be all the info you need. | ||
| Nobuell |
Ah, I missed that. Thanks |
