shifting question

[gsrider]

I just changed my tires on my new to me KLR and when the wheel was off, I compressed the front brake by engaging the brake lever. Now I cannot seem to get the brake to disengage so that I can replace the front wheel. Can someone tell me how to disengage the front brake? TIA.

[Chris]

Try, very gently using a pry-bar or a large flat screwdriver, to get inbetween the brake pads and very slowly and gradually separating the pads with easy and steady levered pressure. Go easy and hopefully (haven't done this with the KLR) the caliper pistons haven't overextended. Otherwise you pull apart the caliper and essentially rebuild it. Had to do this on an old Toyota that was my first disc brake pad replacement experiment. For cars I tend to use a c-clamp to hold the pistons back when changing out pads. With the bike as the caliper is so light weight, I try to use a wood wedge to hold them open.

On 5/28/05, gsrider wrote: > I just changed my tires on my new to me KLR and when the wheel was > off, I compressed the front brake by engaging the brake lever. Now I > cannot seem to get the brake to disengage so that I can replace the > front wheel. Can someone tell me how to disengage the front brake? TIA. > > > > > Archive Quicksearch at: http://www.angelfire.com/ut/moab/klr650_data_search.html > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at: www.dualsportnews.com > List FAQ courtesy of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > >

[James Morrow Sr]

Thats a NO-NO to operate brakes with rotors out of calipers. You might get away with minor work, but I would go all the way to complete bleed of front brake system, to be sure. Brakes are pretty important IMO, especially on the brake starved KLR. Open bleed nut and drain some brake fluid. use cardboard for scratch insulation and a screwdriver and force pads back into calipers all the way. Put wheel back on , and then go through a good bleed brake fluid proceedure with some added fluid. Making sure you get all the air out.

On 5/28/05, gsrider wrote: > I just changed my tires on my new to me KLR and when the wheel was > off, I compressed the front brake by engaging the brake lever. Now I > cannot seem to get the brake to disengage so that I can replace the > front wheel. Can someone tell me how to disengage the front brake? TIA. > > > > > Archive Quicksearch at: http://www.angelfire.com/ut/moab/klr650_data_search.html > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at: www.dualsportnews.com > List FAQ courtesy of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > -- James Morrow Sr Union, MO '00' RT + dual plug + Bunkhouse '00' BUSA + 15hp '05' KLR650 + big fun factor

[Rodney Copeland]

The fluid came out of the reservoir, it should go back in. No bleedin should be required. My guess is that you're bindin the caliper pryin on it. Good luck, Rod

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "gsrider" wrote: > I just changed my tires on my new to me KLR and when the wheel was > off, I compressed the front brake by engaging the brake lever. Now I > cannot seem to get the brake to disengage so that I can replace the > front wheel. Can someone tell me how to disengage the front brake? TIA.

[Eric L. Green]

On Sat, 28 May 2005, gsrider wrote:

> I just changed my tires on my new to me KLR and when the wheel was > off, I compressed the front brake by engaging the brake lever. Now I > cannot seem to get the brake to disengage so that I can replace the > front wheel. Can someone tell me how to disengage the front brake? TIA.

Okay. Put the pads back in the caliper if they're out, if not, just leave them there. Remove the caliper from the bike if it's not removed now, in order to give you room to work. Take a big C clamp. Put the fixed part opposite the piston of the caliper, on the raised flat part that is the backside of the piston housing. Put the rotating part on the back of the passenger's side brake pad. Tighten until the rotating part is touching the outside of that brake pad and the two brake pads are touching. Adjust so that both sides of the C-clamp are centered over the piston and the brake pads are exactly touching. Now tighten. The piston *will* move. Keep an eye on it and stop when the piston approaches flush. Loosen C-clamp, pull out the passenger side brake pad to the outside of its carrier, and voila -- you should have plenty of gap now. The problem with other approaches is that they put uneven pressure on the piston. This approach puts the exact same kind of pressure on the piston that it's designed to handle -- pressure that's even across its surface and pretty much guaranteed to keep it straight in its bore and minimize any scoring. In addition, this distributes pressure across the entire faces of the brake pads, thus limiting any damage that you do to the brake pads (the force you are applying should be less than what a strong squeeze on the brake lever applies, and any brake pad that crumbles under this pressure is defective). Note that this will *NOT* work if you popped the piston out of its bore altogether. However, generally one squeeze of the brake lever isn't enough to do that, at least not on the KLR with its puny master cylinder with all the capacity of a warblogger's seminiferous vesicles. I've never had this fail on any car or motorcycle that I've ever done a brake job on (because when you do a brake job, you need to press in the piston also, in order to make space for the newer thicker pads). I've never had any damage done by this process when the correct size C-clamp is applied (actually, the bigger the better -- within reason!). Despite (or because of?) the fact that my daddy taught me this "trick" when I was just a tad upon his knee back when he was wrenching for a living, it seems to be the "right" way to do it. -E

[Conall]

I may be missing part of this thread, but has anyone mentioned that you need to remove the cover of the brake fluid resevoir to allow the fluid to travel back from where it came? Conall --- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "Eric L. Green" wrote:

> On Sat, 28 May 2005, gsrider wrote: > > I just changed my tires on my new to me KLR and when the wheel was > > off, I compressed the front brake by engaging the brake lever. Now I > > cannot seem to get the brake to disengage so that I can replace the > > front wheel. Can someone tell me how to disengage the front

brake? TIA.

> > Okay. Put the pads back in the caliper if they're out, if not, just

leave

> them there. Remove the caliper from the bike if it's not removed

now, in

> order to give you room to work. Take a big C clamp. Put the fixed part > opposite the piston of the caliper, on the raised flat part that is the > backside of the piston housing. Put the rotating part on the back of

the

> passenger's side brake pad. Tighten until the rotating part is touching > the outside of that brake pad and the two brake pads are touching.

Adjust

> so that both sides of the C-clamp are centered over the piston and the > brake pads are exactly touching. Now tighten. > > The piston *will* move. Keep an eye on it and stop when the piston > approaches flush. Loosen C-clamp, pull out the passenger side brake

pad to

> the outside of its carrier, and voila -- you should have plenty of gap > now. > > The problem with other approaches is that they put uneven pressure

on the

> piston. This approach puts the exact same kind of pressure on the

piston

> that it's designed to handle -- pressure that's even across its surface > and pretty much guaranteed to keep it straight in its bore and minimize > any scoring. In addition, this distributes pressure across the entire > faces of the brake pads, thus limiting any damage that you do to the

brake

> pads (the force you are applying should be less than what a strong

squeeze

> on the brake lever applies, and any brake pad that crumbles under this > pressure is defective). > > Note that this will *NOT* work if you popped the piston out of its bore > altogether. However, generally one squeeze of the brake lever isn't

enough

> to do that, at least not on the KLR with its puny master cylinder

with all

> the capacity of a warblogger's seminiferous vesicles. I've never had

this

> fail on any car or motorcycle that I've ever done a brake job on

(because

> when you do a brake job, you need to press in the piston also, in

order to

> make space for the newer thicker pads). I've never had any damage

done by

> this process when the correct size C-clamp is applied (actually, the > bigger the better -- within reason!). Despite (or because of?) the fact > that my daddy taught me this "trick" when I was just a tad upon his

knee

> back when he was wrenching for a living, it seems to be the "right"

way to

> do it. > > -E

[mrodub]

I have read all of the other replies to this and agree with all of the information given. I would just like to second the notion of removing the reservoir cap prior to compressing the piston. When I changed my front pads I unfortunately forgot to remove the cap while I compressed the pistons back into the caliper to make room for the new, thicker pads. The high pressure inside the system caused the weakest point to leak. This was the seal at the base of the lever in the master cylinder. There was brake fluid covering the inside of my handguard. Needless to say, I was not too happy and thought I had to either buy a new master cylinder or rebuild this one. Well... a few squirts of fluid later and somehow the mighty Tengai fixed itself. I extracted some fluid and bled the brakes. I've retained perfectly functioning front brakes for almost a year now. Shocking... isn't it? Perhaps I just got lucky. Mike

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "gsrider" wrote: > I just changed my tires on my new to me KLR and when the wheel was > off, I compressed the front brake by engaging the brake lever. Now I > cannot seem to get the brake to disengage so that I can replace the > front wheel. Can someone tell me how to disengage the front brake? TIA.

[dooden]

Might try a wooden clothes pin, remove the spring and insert from opposite directions as to evenly press the piston back in, next time insert the clothes pin inbetween the pads soon as you remove the caliper to save you from that hassle. Dooden A15 Green Ape

--- In DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, Chris wrote: > Try, very gently using a pry-bar or a large flat screwdriver, to get > inbetween the brake pads and very slowly and gradually separating the > pads with easy and steady levered pressure. Go easy and hopefully > (haven't done this with the KLR) the caliper pistons haven't > overextended. > > Otherwise you pull apart the caliper and essentially rebuild it. Had > to do this on an old Toyota that was my first disc brake pad > replacement experiment. > > For cars I tend to use a c-clamp to hold the pistons back when > changing out pads. With the bike as the caliper is so light weight, I > try to use a wood wedge to hold them open. > > On 5/28/05, gsrider wrote: > > I just changed my tires on my new to me KLR and when the wheel was > > off, I compressed the front brake by engaging the brake lever. Now I > > cannot seem to get the brake to disengage so that I can replace the > > front wheel. Can someone tell me how to disengage the front brake? TIA. > > > > > > > > > > Archive Quicksearch at: http://www.angelfire.com/ut/moab/klr650_data_search.html > > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at: www.dualsportnews.com > > List FAQ courtesy of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > > > > > > > >

[Dean Wegner]

Hi Mike, If you want to compare the shifting on your bike to another KLR, just drop me a line. Even with bad shifting I think you should be able to make it the five miles to my house. Most of the time, I consider the shifting on the KLR to be the best of all the bikes in the garage. Considering that the other examples are a Harley and a Oilhead BMW, the KLR is an easy winner in turns of shifting. Best, Dean Wegner West Bend '02 KLR650

On 5/30/05, Mike Peplinski wrote: > As I near 7000 miles my KLR has started shifting a little diferent. Where > the shifting was totally smooth and silent it is starting to get a little > "notchy" in the 1-2 and 4-5 shift. Just a little click, but I can feel it in > my toes. I've never missed a shift and have fresh oil in the engine. It > doesn't seem to matter if I shift fast or slow,high RPM or low. It feels > like when you haven't pulled the clutch in fast enough and shift early. It > doesn't do it every time, but about half the time. The question is; is this > just normal shifting bedause the tranny is wearing in or is there some sort > of demon around the corner? My other bike, a BMW airhead also has shifting > issues. In that bike everything is a sign that problems are around the > corner. > > > > > Archive Quicksearch at: http://www.angelfire.com/ut/moab/klr650_data_search.html > List sponsored by Dual Sport News at: www.dualsportnews.com > List FAQ courtesy of Chris Krok at: www.bigcee.com/klr650faq.html > > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > > > > >