Fazer Owners Club - Unofficial

Bikes, Hints'n'Tips => Fazer 1000/FZ1 corner => Topic started by: Ghoti on 11 October 2014, 09:12:27 am

Title: Rear brake caliper pin holes worn
Post by: Ghoti on 11 October 2014, 09:12:27 am
Just had my tyres replaced and was advised that the holes that the pins that hold the brake pads in place go through in my rear caliper have worn badly. They are oval!
I guess this is just because of vibration slowly wearing the metal out, but....
Is this common?
Am I doing something wrong to cause this?
Apart from a new rear brake, is there anything I can do?
Thanks in advance
Title: Re: Rear brake caliper pin holes worn
Post by: hotmetal on 12 October 2014, 06:45:33 pm
That's odd. How many miles has yours done? I've had 2 gen 1s and put 34000 on each but not had that. Can't think of a solution off hand,  unless it's feasible to open the hole up to round again and put some sort of insert in (although not sure where you could find such a thing). My pad pins have *slight* wear grooves but caliper is alright last time I looked. Yamaha recommend changing pins at every pad change, maybe to keep everything close-fitting, but I've not heard of this before.
Title: Re: Rear brake caliper pin holes worn
Post by: Ghoti on 12 October 2014, 07:25:33 pm
It's "only" done 90,000 miles. I've never changed the pins (never even heard you should). I guess if the holes are starting to wear at around 30k, and once they start going loose the wear will only accelerate through more movement (?), by 90k they will be worn.
Oh well, they've only got to hold together for 10k then I'll look for another bike (never have liked high mileage bikes ;) )
Title: Re: Rear brake caliper pin holes worn
Post by: AyJay on 12 October 2014, 09:51:03 pm
Yup. Mine were like that after 85k miles. I did wonder if some clever company could add the lost material back by aluminium welding, but I bought a second hand caliper instead. The front calipers are very slightly oval, but at the current wear rate they'll go another 50k before they need replacing.


Of course, the problem with the rear caliper on the FZS is that unlike the front calipers, there are very few other bikes which use them which means they're quite expensive second hand.
Title: Re: Rear brake caliper pin holes worn
Post by: hotmetal on 12 October 2014, 10:45:24 pm
90k?! Well that's maybe why you don't hear of this terribly often. It's annoying that things like this need money spending when the bike is high mileage, even though it will go on for loads longer.

The bit about replacing the pins is on page 7.2 of the Haynes manual. According to Haynes "yamaha recommend using a new pad spring, anti chatter shims, pad pins and retaining clips when new pads are installed". Personally I just assess their condition, clean and put copper grease where appropriate, only replace bits that are looking shafted.