Done with the Valk so back to bleeding the flippin front brakes on the 1200.

[John Schmidt]

I seem to be constantly drawing air in somehow, worked on it a bit this afternoon to no avail. Tried some grease on the threads of the bleeders....no help. I can't tell if I'm drawing it in through the threads or at the bleeder hose. Tomorrow I thought about cutting some small strips of teflon tape and wrap the threads, then cut the bleeder hose back to a new section for a tighter fit. In all the years of turning wrenches on cars, bikes, planes....you name it, I've never had trouble bleeding brakes. This one is making up for all the good years I guess. I'm certainly open to suggestions, I can't really move on to any other area of the bike until this is cured.

One thing I found out today, it sure is a cold blooded old thing. Didn't want to run right without the choke for a good five minutes. And it's still popping in one cylinder on the left side, mostly when trying to accelerate, went looking for my 5 lb. sledge hammer to fix it. 

[Tropic traveler]

It doesn't like the cold John!
And I completely understand. 

[Grumpy]

probably a dumb thought, but do you have the copper washers on both sides of the banjo bolt. If not they will leak.

[OnaWingandaPrayer]

I went to wally world garden section. picked up a one quart pressure pump (think weed sprayer). took an old master cylinder lid and put in a fitting for a hose( I used a grease fitting,ball and spring removed). drilled out the tiny spray nozzle hole so I could force fit a hose ,I think its 3/16".  Made a pressure bleeder same as used for automobiles. a couple hrs and 20 ish bucks. Also made a bleeder cap for the rear master . the front master bleeder cap will fit the clutch as well ( at least it does on my 1500 Wing).

  just a putting the thought out there .

[Thunderbolt]

Put a little pressure on the lines John and then immerse it in the nearest retention pond and see where the bubbles show up. 

[John Schmidt]

Put a little pressure on the lines John and then immerse it in the nearest retention pond and see where the bubbles show up. 

Believe me Terry, that thought has come up more than once in recent months. Living on the golf course there are three nice sized ponds within pushing distance. 

[John Schmidt]

Well, I guess it's back to the drawing board. I removed the bleeders today, wrapped a slim strip of teflon on the threads then started over. It drained the m/c so I used my auto-feed bottle and set it up top again. Using my air driven bleeder, I bled the left side first(farthest away from the m/c), ran it until there was no sign of air coming through. Then moved to the right side, did the same there. Result, a lot of brake fluid passed along with air bubbles on both sides but little brake action at the handle. I get a slight amount of resistance when down to 1/2" from the grip. I'm at a loss; new m/c, new brake lines, rebuilt calipers, new pads, everything is tight.....including my jaws now. 

I'm beginning to think Terry is on to something unless someone has some spending money burning a hole in their pocket. Everything is either new or rebuilt on the bike except the engine, I'm getting tired of it and this brake problem isn't helping.

[Grumpy]

John, wondering about a size miss match.  Are you using the gold wing calipers ?  If the pistons are larger the master cyl may not be able to supply enough fluid.  I think you are using a Valk master cyl ?
I ran into some thing like that quite a few years ago, Master cyl did not have a large enough piston, to move the dual piston calipers I had. If I recall it was 5/8 bore and went to a 7/8 bore to fix it.

[John Schmidt]

John, wondering about a size miss match.  Are you using the gold wing calipers ?  If the pistons are larger the master cyl may not be able to supply enough fluid.  I think you are using a Valk master cyl ?
I ran into some thing like that quite a few years ago, Master cyl did not have a large enough piston, to move the dual piston calipers I had. If I recall it was 5/8 bore and went to a 7/8 bore to fix it.

Yes, using the GW calipers with a Valkyrie m/c. The piston on the Valk m/c is 14mm, will have to check the sizes of the caliper pistons involved. What seems strange to me, the piston on the OEM Goldwing m/c is actually larger than the Valks, and it was only used to activate one caliper. That's what has me buffaloed, a larger piston for just one caliper whereas on the Valk we have a slightly smaller piston that operates two calipers. Doesn't make sense....but then a lot of stuff on this bike hasn't made sense, both before and after I worked on it.    

Just checked, the diameters of the two different sizes of the GW front calipers are: larger one=32mm, smaller one=25.4mm. I don't know the Valk piston diameter for the caliper, the m/c housing has 14mm stamped on it. I recently tossed the GW m/c guts but I had compared the two earlier and the GW piston is larger.

[hubcapsc]

on the Valk we have a slightly smaller piston that operates two calipers. Doesn't make sense...

And the Interstate rear caliper has smaller pistons that the STD/Tourer...

-Mike

[Pastor John]

Dumb Question...

Didnt 1200s have linked brakes?

[Skinhead]

The Grump may be on to something, I don't know where to find this information, but it would be nice to know the Volume of fluid displaced by each of the MC's/per stroke.  But I would think that repeated pumping of the valk MC would eventually result in the pistons taking up all the clearance in the pad/rotor and then start building resistance.  I guess the only thing I can think of trying is to remove the calipers from the rotor and clamp the pistons all the way in with a C clamp and then try to bleed.  If that works, install the calipers and pump them up on the bike while keeping an eye on the fluid level.