[If you don't want to read the story of my bike, you could still read the last few lines of this post and maybe give me an help! ]
Hi everyone,
as I said quite some time back when I registered on here, I would like to share with you the ongoing restoration of my 1998 KX250. So here we go!
The first step, before even jumping on it is, as any of you probably already knows, cleaning it thoroughly.
This were my two duly companions on this part of my job, together with an awful lot of patience and even more time.
Then it was time for the "spend a lot and ride close-to-nothing" step.
The bike wouldn't stop when I got it and the front brake lever was really hard. So I set out to check the brakes.
This is what I found
If you think it doesn't look that bad wait for the next pic
It took me more than an hour to clean it properly. Promise, I'm not exaggerating this. Can you imagine 16 years of dirt and mud getting in there and being cemented by the heat of the brakes?
Plus the pistons were blocked and the rubber boots covering the floating pins were (and still are to be honest, as I left them that way) bashed. And if that's not enough to you, the screw that's working as a pin to keep in place the brake pads is blocked (how do you say in english when the head of a screw is damaged and you can't take it out by simply unscrewing?). Which is why I left in the old pads in after I gave them a nice rubbing with a file. Before:
And after:
Looking good now
I'm sorry I haven't posted a proper pic of the bike! Will do soon!
Now comes the part where I need your help: I got the pistons out and, as it turns out, some butcher had a go at it before me:
Considering it took a lot of effort and some light hammering to put the pistons back into their place, and that although it's now stopping pretty good the brake lever is really hard to pull, could it be that those signs have ruined the piston and cylinder? And now the piston isn't moving very well, even though it's been cleaned?
Hi everyone,
as I said quite some time back when I registered on here, I would like to share with you the ongoing restoration of my 1998 KX250. So here we go!
The first step, before even jumping on it is, as any of you probably already knows, cleaning it thoroughly.
This were my two duly companions on this part of my job, together with an awful lot of patience and even more time.
Then it was time for the "spend a lot and ride close-to-nothing" step.
The bike wouldn't stop when I got it and the front brake lever was really hard. So I set out to check the brakes.
This is what I found
If you think it doesn't look that bad wait for the next pic
It took me more than an hour to clean it properly. Promise, I'm not exaggerating this. Can you imagine 16 years of dirt and mud getting in there and being cemented by the heat of the brakes?
Plus the pistons were blocked and the rubber boots covering the floating pins were (and still are to be honest, as I left them that way) bashed. And if that's not enough to you, the screw that's working as a pin to keep in place the brake pads is blocked (how do you say in english when the head of a screw is damaged and you can't take it out by simply unscrewing?). Which is why I left in the old pads in after I gave them a nice rubbing with a file. Before:
And after:
Looking good now
I'm sorry I haven't posted a proper pic of the bike! Will do soon!
Now comes the part where I need your help: I got the pistons out and, as it turns out, some butcher had a go at it before me:
Considering it took a lot of effort and some light hammering to put the pistons back into their place, and that although it's now stopping pretty good the brake lever is really hard to pull, could it be that those signs have ruined the piston and cylinder? And now the piston isn't moving very well, even though it's been cleaned?
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