RELATED MODS: EBC Brake Pads
Purchased stainless steel brake lines from HEL Performance in the UK. You can select the colour of the lines and the colour of the banjo bolts.
I chose to go with the CARBON/SMOKE colour for the lines and GOLD for the banjos.
REAR BRAKES
So I started with the rear brake line first. The process is simple, but a little messy. Get everything you need set up and laid out ahead of time and close at hand as you want to work quickly when doing the swap over as removing the brake line can be messy and you tend to drip brake fluid around.
I removed the seat and then the cap to the rear brake fluid reservoir. It's kind of a pain to get at and if you lift your tank it might make access to it easier. I put in a small funnel to make it easier to pour brake fluid in as you want to keep it topped up. 
Simply unbolt both banjo bolts (caliper and master cylinder) and remove rear line. Then quickly bolt on your new line. Tighten the banjo bolts.
Top up the brake fluid. Pump the brake pedal several times to "prime" the system.
Now it's time to bleed. I purchased and decided to try using a Mityvac vacuum pump. This hand pump creates a vacuum that will basically suck out air and fluid through your brake lines. It's handy to use for flushing your system with new fluid, which is basically what I did at the same time as bleeding.
I used MOTUL DOT 4 brake fluid.
Once the Mityvac is assembled you are ready to go.
All you do is place some fluid in the Mityvac reservoir (so you don't suck air back into the system), attach the proper sized fitting to the brake caliper bleeder nipple, then pump up the vacuum a bit and then using a 8mm box wrench, crack open the bleed nipple a 1/4 turn. The vacuum pressure created by the pump draws air and fluid out from the line. Once the vacuum pressure is gone, close the bleed nipple and repeat the process several times until there is no air bubbles visible coming into the Mityvac reservoir.
Now one issue most people have with vacuum pumps, is that there always seems to be bubbles as it pulls air in through all the various joints and fitting on the pump unit. So to finish the bleeding, I just went "old school" and pumped the brake pedal with my hand, held it down, then opened the bleed nipple, closed it then released the brake pedal. I repeated this step several times until I got a hard, firm pedal.
Remember to keep an eye on the fluid level in the brake fluid reservoir!!! You want to keep topping it up and NEVER let it run empty or you will pull air back into the system and you will have to start the process all over again!
All finished!
FRONT BRAKES
The front brakes are a little more tricky than the rear as first I had to figure out which HEL brake line went to which caliper (yes, they are different) and then which end goes to the master cylinder. I think I figured it out. The right caliper has a small bend at the banjo.
So, this is the part I think I got wrong and someone please post their experience/information on this. I was paranoid about letting the fluid in the reservoir drain out, but in hindsight, I don't think it would have mattered as I have already 'breached' the system and introduced air into it. So I had to work quickly and have everything ready to swap out. This made for things getting a little messy when it came to the point of bringing the new lines down, getting the old off and new on. Lots of fluid dripping around. In hind sight I think it would have been ok to drain all the fluid out first since we are doing a full line replace anyway. Comments/suggestions guys? Can you drain out all the fluid when Changing over lines?
I started by removing the line from the master cylinder and then putting in the 2 new SS lines. There is a "double long" banjo bolt used for this, with washers in between each banjo:
I snugged em up enough to stop fluid from leaking, but loose enough to rotate them. In order to keep the leaking fluid from leaking out the other ends and all over the place, I taped some little plastic bags around the ends of each line:
I unbolted all the stock attaching points for the factory lines. I also removed this support bracket as it held the horn and old brake line and since I don't use the factory horn anymore, I removed the bracket and 2 bolts completely.
I finished removing all the factory brake line and removed it from the bike completely. I carefully wiped each hole at each caliper so it was clean.
So this is the part when I had to work fast. I did one side at a time, starting with the right and brought the new SS line down to the caliper and bolted it into the caliper. Then re-topped up my fluid. Yeah it got a bit messy as you could imagine as the fluid now free flows down and through the new lines. I had lots of rags handy. Then did the same for the left side caliper.
For routing, I simply brought both lines straight down past the right fork, keeping them together with some black cable ties and also one loose cable tie around the right fork and both SS lines (similar to how they had the factory lines). Each side then just splits out to each caliper.
On the right side I re-used the factory clamp on the fork housing, and for the left I passed the line though the little plastic clamp that is on top of the front fender.
NOTE: The bend on the right side HEL SS line at the caliper makes the line come VERY close to the bleed nipple! In fact it was a bit of a PITA to get the Mityvac adapter on it and I had to hold it down with my other hand.
BLEEDING
I found some very helpful, step by step instructions on how to manually bleed your brakes and I referred to it during the bleeding process. I made it into a PDF and uploaded to my site. Feel free to download and use it as it was VERY useful!
Download: Manual Brake Bleeding
IMPORTANT: During this process you MUST keep brake fluid in the reservoir at all times and NEVER let it go empty or you will have to start all over again.
The first thing you need to do is to PRIME your system. To do this, do the following:
1. Pinch banjo fitting on the end of this loose hose with you thumb and index finger and pump the brake lever slowly until fluid squirts out between your fingers. (this is priming the master cylinder)
2. Re-install the brake hose and tighten the banjo bolt
3. Pump the brake lever and watch in the reservoir for air bubbles. Air bubbles coming up from the master cylinder means that the brake hoses and calipers are filling with fluid. After pumping the brake lever for what seems like eternity you should feel the brake lever getting stiffer as if your brakes are working but are spongy.
Now this is where you can bleed your brakes the "old fashioned" way or using the Mityvac. Again, I used a combination of both methods, just like I did the rear.
At some point during this process I ended up "ingesting" brake fluid into my Mityvac and the thing suddenly erupted brake fluid; spraying brake fluid everywhere including into my face and eye.
This would be a good time to mention if you are using a vacuum pump (anything under pressure) of any kind, please wear eye protection to avoid what happened to me. I did get the Mityvac cleaned up and back to normal. I think from lying it down and having it laying on the ground is how fluid got drawn into it. I would say it was user error and not the fault of the product.
So after some panicked personal clean up I abandoned the Mityvac and enlisted the help of my wife and proceeded to finish the job by manually bleeding the brakes. I just followed the bleeding instructions as laid out in the Manual Brake Bleeding document and after a while I had a nice feeling brake lever!
I topped off the brake fluid, but make sure to not overfill it! Replace the reservoir lid and have a look for any leeks coming from any of the banjo bolts.
Take your bike for a slow (driveway) test ride!! It was late and pissing rain so I only moved the bike around the garage and I still need to do a proper test ride. I re-checked the brake lever this morning and it's still solid and holding pressure. I suggest after your test ride and riding for a few days to re-bleed the brakes again.
Here are a few more pics:
TIPS AND LESSONS LEARNED
- Have lots of shop towels and rags on hand!
- Perhaps completely draining the fluid from the reservoir would be a better way to go(?)
- Found the Mityvac very handy and great for doing fluid flushes as it pulls the fluid through the lines very nicely and does make this a "one person job". However I felt more comfortable using the manual bleeding method to finish the bleeding process.
- A common complaint about Mityvacs is that they do produce a lot of bubbles as it will pull in air from all the various fittings and hose connections on the unit. So when bleeding, you always see bubbles and can be misleading - which is why I resorted back to the manual bleeding method to finish the job as by just using a hose on the nipple fitting and into a jar of fluid, you can then easily see when there are no more air bubbles coming out of the caliper.
- Give yourself lots of time to do this as it will take longer than you think it will!
- Double check and re-snug all your banjo bolts when finished.
- Do no re-use banjo bolt washers!
- Boneman
|
