02-27-2017, 09:54 AM
Thanks everyone for the advice. I am pleased to report that I am not yet dead. Please note the keyword is 'yet' as I'm still bedding the new brakes in and there's still room for it to all go wrong.
Started in the morning with a trip to Halfords to get some thread locking compound and copper grease and a new set of hex keys because I couldn't find mine (guess what turned up when I didn't need them yesterday...). Got the wheel off without difficulty, which was the easiest part of the day. Got the hairdryer from upstairs into the garage to warm up the bolts and giving them a gentle tap with the hammer before taking them off, then getting confused as the manual said to put the disc with the arrow of rotation but my disc didn't have one so just decided to go with the same way round as the previous one. Bolts on and left for the locking compound to set while I tackled the pads. Which turned into a 2 hour fight with the pistons.
The manual said 'finger pressure' would be necessary to push the piston back and, with it being a key braking component I was reluctant to do more than finger pushing. After about 90 minutes of trying every which way to 'finger push' the piston back, I got frustrated and attacked it with 2 screwdrivers, a hex key and one of the new pads and leveraged the bugger back in with force. It worked, the piston was back in and suddenly the new pads could fit. Huzzah. Then it took 30 minutes to get them to stay in and put the bracket back on the caliper which resulted in a lot of swearing. Mainly cause I couldn't see, it was dark by now and the lights in the garage were not provided adequate lighting so I had to get the other half to come hold the torch (which she was reluctant to do because of the shouting and swearing). Eventually got the pads to stay in and suddenly bish bash bosh the caliper was back together, the wheel was back on the forks and everything was done back up in a matter of minutes.
Took it for a little ride out yesterday morning just to check the wheel was straight and the brakes didn't disintegrate on the first use before riding into work today (where I am now sat, healthy and alive for the time being).
Lessons learnt:
Pistons understand nothing but a heavy hand.
Pads will dance in and out like pixies.
No amount of Spotify will calm the enraged mechanic when the piston will not respond to reasonable requests to move back into its f**king hole.
Thanks again for all the advice guys, hopefully the new disc and pads will last a nice long time and I can forget all about this by the time I next need it.... (more hopefully, I'll have a bigger bike next time I need to do this.....)
Have a good week!
Started in the morning with a trip to Halfords to get some thread locking compound and copper grease and a new set of hex keys because I couldn't find mine (guess what turned up when I didn't need them yesterday...). Got the wheel off without difficulty, which was the easiest part of the day. Got the hairdryer from upstairs into the garage to warm up the bolts and giving them a gentle tap with the hammer before taking them off, then getting confused as the manual said to put the disc with the arrow of rotation but my disc didn't have one so just decided to go with the same way round as the previous one. Bolts on and left for the locking compound to set while I tackled the pads. Which turned into a 2 hour fight with the pistons.
The manual said 'finger pressure' would be necessary to push the piston back and, with it being a key braking component I was reluctant to do more than finger pushing. After about 90 minutes of trying every which way to 'finger push' the piston back, I got frustrated and attacked it with 2 screwdrivers, a hex key and one of the new pads and leveraged the bugger back in with force. It worked, the piston was back in and suddenly the new pads could fit. Huzzah. Then it took 30 minutes to get them to stay in and put the bracket back on the caliper which resulted in a lot of swearing. Mainly cause I couldn't see, it was dark by now and the lights in the garage were not provided adequate lighting so I had to get the other half to come hold the torch (which she was reluctant to do because of the shouting and swearing). Eventually got the pads to stay in and suddenly bish bash bosh the caliper was back together, the wheel was back on the forks and everything was done back up in a matter of minutes.
Took it for a little ride out yesterday morning just to check the wheel was straight and the brakes didn't disintegrate on the first use before riding into work today (where I am now sat, healthy and alive for the time being).
Lessons learnt:
Pistons understand nothing but a heavy hand.
Pads will dance in and out like pixies.
No amount of Spotify will calm the enraged mechanic when the piston will not respond to reasonable requests to move back into its f**king hole.
Thanks again for all the advice guys, hopefully the new disc and pads will last a nice long time and I can forget all about this by the time I next need it.... (more hopefully, I'll have a bigger bike next time I need to do this.....)
Have a good week!