Seems when it rains it pours. Brakes!

[John Schmidt]

Now that I seem to have the alternator issue solved and the trike is charging up a storm, I've been putting some miles on the trike trying to work out any bugs that might show up prior to riding to IZ. Today I ran some errands and all was well until I pulled into the apartment complex. As I rolled up to my garage, I hear a rather loud rubbing noise from the front wheel that's intermittent but shows with each revolution. Now what? Pulled in and jacked up the front end to spin the wheel...yup, brake(s) dragging. Why all of a sudden, plus I rebuilt them no more than 2 yrs. ago. Sounded like it was the right side so pulled that caliper and the wheel spins normal with a little swishing sound from the pads on the left, but not dragging. I had a slightly longer brake line on the shelf so put that on first and am now in the bleeding process...the new line is approx. 1.5" longer which allows a bit more flex. I took the cover off the m/c to refill it during the bleeding process and I noticed when I released the lever it would return but had a bit of a bounce before settling all the way out. The tiny hole in the bottom is clear, not sure why this happened all of a sudden. Would like to hear your thoughts on this, I'm just going to bleed the front brakes and see what happens.

[da prez]

Seem to be air in the line. Next would be a brake line expanding and causing the problem.

            da prez

[luftkoph]

If the brake system checks out ok, and the dragging is persistent maybe loosen the front axle, calipers and triples then retighten per the service manual, I’ve had some bikes that where very sensitive to fork alignment causing brake drag.

[hubcapsc]

Why all of a sudden, plus I rebuilt them no more than 2 yrs. ago.

Took 'em all the way apart and shined up the pistons like new and cleaned the
cylinder bores and seal slots? Or, at least, mashed the pistons out far
enough to clean most of the crud build up from them?

-Mike

[hubcapsc]

Jello...



-Mike

[John Schmidt]

Why all of a sudden, plus I rebuilt them no more than 2 yrs. ago.

Took 'em all the way apart and shined up the pistons like new and cleaned the
cylinder bores and seal slots? Or, at least, mashed the pistons out far
enough to clean most of the crud build up from them?

-Mike

Yup, total disassembly and into the sonic cleaner. Once done with that, cleaned manually all areas not to my satisfaction. Pistons were good so just buffed them smooth and reinstalled. Both the brake and clutch were cleaned the same way just a couple months back using the sonic cleaner, then new Honda kits installed. It's all been working fine until yesterday. Stay tuned...I think I'm going to drop both calipers and listen with my stethoscope. Might have a bad bearing as well, if questionable the wheel comes off.

[CoreyP]

A bad bearing could do that. That would not really come to my mind but If the bearing is going bad but not grinding it's self a piece?????? I had a front bearing slowly going bad and I only caught it because I was a changing the front tire. It was surprisingly bad for not make noise.

[John Schmidt]

A bad bearing could do that. That would not really come to my mind but If the bearing is going bad but not grinding it's self a piece?????? I had a front bearing slowly going bad and I only caught it because I was a changing the front tire. It was surprisingly bad for not make noise.

Strangely enough, this evening I put some good miles on the trike over some really rough roads. I have no indication of a bad bearing but did have the right front caliper dragging a few days ago which was corrected before tonight's ride. I had been intending to change the line leading to it which was about 2" longer. As a result I had to go through the bleeding process. I now have good brakes that release and no noise. I'm debating replacing the front tire before I travel next month, that will give me a chance to check those bearings.