FZ6 dragging brakes?

[Grahamm]

Recently, when trying to get my FZ6 out of the shed, I found it very difficult to push and found that the front brakes were seeming to drag on the discs.

There's always been a bit of noise when pushing it because of the twin-pot floating caliper design, but this was worse than that.

I've squirted some brake cleaner behind the pads and pushed them back with a screwdriver between them which helped (it doesn't feel like it requires more than the usual effort to push), but I've got an MOT coming up pretty soon and I'm a bit concerned that the front wheel doesn't spin freely enough (if I give it a good shove with my hand it only makes about half a revolution before coming to a stop because of drag from the brakes).

I really don't want to have to disassemble the calipers if I don't have to, so does anyone have any useful suggestions or comments?

[Skippernick]

End of winter give them a good clean and a dry run, its probably rust/ salt etc.

[robby boy]

If the calipers are sticky I'm afraid there is only one cure for it, the calipers need to be stripped and cleaned, in my opinion squirting brake cleaner is no replacement for a good clean and coat of red rubber grease.

[darrsi]

You can get away with just pushing a pot out one at a time by securing the others and using brake cleaner and a toothbrush, then a coating of red rubber grease on each pot afterwards.
It's fiddly, and a bit time consuming, but certainly a worthwhile job.
As long as they're not properly seized up that is.

[Grahamm]

in my opinion squirting brake cleaner is no replacement for a good clean and coat of red rubber grease.

You're probably right, but I don't have the time or the opportunity to do that at the moment.

I know the MOT has a brake test in it, but can anyone tell me exactly what's involved?

[Grahamm]

You can get away with just pushing a pot out one at a time by securing the others and using brake cleaner and a toothbrush, then a coating of red rubber grease on each pot afterwards.

Ah, that's useful to know! I may well give that a try until I can find time to strip them completely

[unfazed]

Since you have the floating/sliding calipers, it is most likely the slide pins have dried out and/or the  rubber boots are damaged allowing crud into the slide pin.
Easy enough to check,  undo one slider bolt at the time, check the condition of it and its associated boot. clean it up and apply red rubber grease to the slide pin and into the boot.

[celticdog]

in my opinion squirting brake cleaner is no replacement for a good clean and coat of red rubber grease.

You're probably right, but I don't have the time or the opportunity to do that at the moment.

I know the MOT has a brake test in it, but can anyone tell me exactly what's involved?

Hi your bike will fail the mot if the brakes are binding or sticking. The mot computer measures brake efficiency which is (%) = (Retarding Force ÷ Weight) x 100
You'll need to find the time to fix it fella 


This website is excellent, tells you everything you need to know.


http://mot.fasttrackmotorcycles.co.uk/12/motorcycle-mot-checklist/

[Grahamm]

Hi your bike will fail the mot if the brakes are binding or sticking. The mot computer measures brake efficiency which is (%) = (Retarding Force ÷ Weight) x 100
You'll need to find the time to fix it fella 

Thanks for that link and the info.

I've ordered a small tin of Red Rubber Grease and I'm going to have a go at cleaning off the slide pins and then, depending on how that works, cleaning and re-lubing the pistons.

[Grahamm]

It's taken me a while to find enough time to sort this, but I thought I'd just post some details here if anyone else reads this thread.

What I did was to take out the slide pins and displace the caliper (leaving the mounting bracket on the bike), then took out the brake pads.

Firstly I sprayed brake cleaner onto the pots to clean off most of the accumulated crud that was on the pots and wiped it off.

After that I held one of the pots in place whilst very gently squeezing the brake lever to push the other pot a bit further out (basically a couple of mm past the "tide mark" of crud around the pot) sprayed it again, then put a small smear of red rubber grease around it and pushed it back into place, repeating this with the other one.

I put a touch of copperslip on the slide bolt threads and some red rubber grease on the smooth sections of them, then did the same on the other side (and did the rear brake for good measure) and they all definitely seem to be smoother now