Right Front brake rotor

[Jonesz]

Hi there, new to the forum and new to Valkyries.  I recently purchased a 1999 CT and after having to have the right front fork seal replaced have developed a very annoying click (especially noticeable at low speeds)in the right front rotor. Have searched many places but cannot locate anyone with this exact problem. The right rotor does seem to have excessive rotational play when grasped and turned, almost as if the buttons are too loose. The left rotor has no play in it. The only thing I have found is in the Clymer manual which says if the rotor is loose it must be replaced! The bike has just over 62,000km or approx 37000 miles on the odometer. The PO is a man I trust and he says that is original and some service records with the bike back that up. The rotor is well within service limits ie in excess of 4mm. Some other posters here and elsewhere advise to use brake cleaner to free the buttons which may be sticking or use a press or punch to tighten the buttons? The brake pads only have 3000 km on them and the clicking noise goes away with light pressure on the brake lever. Normal braking seems fine. Sorry for the long post but this is driving me nuts. Hate to have to buy rotors which cost approx $400 Cdn for a pair if this is not going to cure my problem. Thanx for any help.

[gordonv]

Hi Jonesz, welcome to the madness.

You might wish to start with adding your location to your profile, you might get some offers from local help.

You are talking of buttons, pads and rotors. I'm really trying to understand what the issue is.

The buttons, are the bolts holding the rotors on? Rotor loose, tight.

There is also issues when the front axle is not installed properly. You might find it hard to find a post with a picture, since photobucket screwed us all, but there is an alignment mark on the left hand side of the axle that you should almost (?) see.

[DeathWishBikerDude]

Possible accident victim?Could try buying wheel and or rotor on eBay and compare findings.

[Jonesz]

The bike did not make this noise prior to my buddy and me repairing the fork seal. As far as accident victim the bike is what I would call immaculate with no evidence of bad treatment or accident. The buttons are the rivet like attachments that hold the outer ring of the rotor to the inner aluminum? center.
The wheel appears to be true and straight so I am assuming that my trouble is with the looseness of the rotor itself. We did remount the wheel as per the manual after having issues with the rotor contacting the caliper on the left side but this appears to be a different issue.
Jonesz

[Tfrank59]

Yes Welcome to The Forum and more importantly to Valkyrie ownership. I think you're going to need a right front rotor just because it has rotational play like you said and the left one does not. me personally I hate it when there's any kind of asymmetry like that even if it's just due to normal wear and tear. obviously the right side rivets loosened up much more quickly than the other side and there may be a secondary issue that caused it who knows.

[DeathWishBikerDude]

Remount your wheel assembly and use a block of wood to get even clearance between the fork tubes.I bet you tightened the wheel before having perfect alignment.I made myself a note inside my service manual the first time I replaced front wheel.There was a very slight drag from one side.How long have you driven the bike in this condition?

[Chrisj CMA]

First of all let's get our right and left squared away. If by Right side you mean (as I would) the throttle side, then I have a good right side rotor you can have cheap.

PM me and let me know if that will help you

[Jonesz]

Will take your advice and remount the wheel being extra careful with the clearances and measurements. i have driven it about 125 miles like this. ChrisJ will PM you if remounting doesn't help me but am wondering about shipping from Florida to Canada, although I can have shipment made to North Dakota and drive across to pick it up. Will get back to you. Thanx for the offer.
Will advise what happens after the wheel remount but that will be a few days as the MC lift is presently holding up another Valkyrie (new to my riding group) .

[Firefighter]

The left rotor will make contact with the caliper bolts if the axle is not flush top to bottom with the fork. In other words the axle is not in far enough and causes the noise you stated. Probably nothing else wrong. There is a sequence to installing the front wheel, if you don't have a Honda manual yet, you need one, but meanwhile go to the home page,, look for shop talk,, click on it then find Carl Kulow Maintenance Page,, tire change and rear spine lube,, front wheel install. Will explain everything.

[longrider]

I'm with firefighter on this one.  The end of the axle on the left or drivers side should be flush with the fork.  All he needs to do is loosen the pinch bolts on the left side and gently move the fork until it is flush.
 This centers the wheel in between the forks

[Chrisj CMA]

I'm with firefighter on this one.  The end of the axle on the left or drivers side should be flush with the fork.  All he needs to do is loosen the pinch bolts on the left side and gently move the fork until it is flush.
 This centers the wheel in between the forks

Well, I would agree if the clicking was reported as coming from the left side. That's why I said what I said about left and right in my previous post. Axle mis alignment usually causes a problem on the left side not the right side.

[Tfrank59]

and either way he's saying there's rotational play in the right side rotor, not in the left, which tells me there's an issue to at least look into with the rivets.  maybe once the wheel's properly aligned he'll find there's the same play in the left rotor's rivets, maybe not.  As we all know, they are floating rotors, via the rivets, but excessive play isn't a safe condition.

Yeah I just went out in the garage and grabbed a hold of each of my rotors trying to rotate them there is not a bit of play in either side so regardless of whether it's assembled incorrectly there shouldn't be rotational play imo

[da prez]

 Problem occurred after repairs. Go back to where the repairs were made. Is the fork tube aligned. Without the front wheel on the bike , does the axle slip thru or do you have to force it in. This is the first place to check. If this is correct , then when you assemble , after the front axle is installed and the left pinch bolts are torqued , the front end is bounced down and up several times. Then you torque the right axle pinch bolts. Follow the tech info and you should have no problems. (some in between assembly is left out) I had this happen on my first repair by not following the re assembly procedure.

                                           da prez

[Ricky-D]

Rotational play it the rotor assembly is not a big deal and I wouldn't worry about it. It all has to do with the mileage on the bike, front brake use, and rider habits. The clicking noise you hear is most likely coming from the pads clapping against the rotor, which also is not a big deal.  However, if you want to try to eliminate the noise you should probable replace the flat stainless spring that nestles above the pad in the location of the pad anchor pin, nestled between the top of the pads and the caliper. Part # 45108-ML7-922   SPRING, PAD

***

[Jonesz]

Hi All
and thanx for all the info re noise from my front rotor assembly. We gave it another go this aft and there were a couple of issues. The calipers were not floating properly (almost stuck) and the pads had some rotational play. The calipers were disassembled, cleaned and new grease applied. The pad anti-rattle "keepers" were bent a bit to take some of the play out of the pads. After that was done it was noticed that there was slightly more drag on the rotors in certain spots, almost as if they were warped but not evident when turning the wheel by hand with a dial guage measuring the trueness of the rotors. What we did then was put some brake cleaner on the buttons "rivets" and tapped the rotors with a rubber mallet to free what we thought might be stuck buttons, Long story short is that I do not know what was the main "fix" but there is no longer any clicking-ticking at low speeds and all is right in the Valkyrie world again at this end.
Jonesz