brake troubles

[crustyfmx250]

For a while, my brakes have been feeling pretty weak. The back takes a fair bit to lock, and the front goes all the way to my fingers, and doesnt lock the wheel unless my weight is right up the front.

Ive put in new fluid a couple of times (and bled the lines properly), and a week ago i got new brake pads, but they are exatly the same as before....

what could be wrong?

[-=DV=-]

lol...having eternal hydrolic problems im preatty sure its air in ur line man...bleeding them properly doesnt always get the air out...:( sometimes u gotta bleed em like 10 times to get it all out :(

[ont.freerider]

yeah crusty, the reason you your lever can be pulled all the way pretty much says brakes, when you bled the line how many ppl did you do it with. its pretty dran hard to do it on your own.

and make sure there is always new fluid in the master cylinder when pumping the lever. cause if you keep bleeding and dont kee topping up the fluid, well.....air just gets pulled in, i know you are a smart guy crusty so im sure you didnt make that mistake, but even the best of us make mistakes.

just out of cursiousity, how do you know you bled the lines properly. manual or just from your knowledge?

[crustyfmx250]

yeah, my dad helped me with it. Worked from the manual & my dads general knowledge (hes a mechanic) , so im pretty sure it was done right.

the thing is though, the brakes started to feel bad before we ever did anything to them.

[OZ FMX]

did you look to see if your brake line had a hole in it, if not just get another line

[^God^Air^]

when the brake pads wear out it obviously operates more poorly..
and you can adjust the rear pedal and front lever.. which might help.. but usually its air in the lines or time to changed pads.

[phortwunty]

I don't know what year your bike is, but check your hoses going to the disc's. Sometimes the rubber gets all soft and squishy and when you squeeze all it does is expand the hose....

Throw some steel braids on their........ :D

[ont.freerider]

yeah thats a good tip too! but crusty does the fluid level always stay the same? could it possibly be that the plunger in the master cylinder is worn out? have you ever had brake problems before?

if the plunger and seals are worn out, then it wont push fluid very well. your bike is a 96 right? its got some miles on it. it could be the plunger. always a good thing to do when you are fixing your own bike..... always replace the cheapest things first before you go and spend a couple hundred on stuff and find out its not wat you needed. what im tryin to say, is try bleeding again. then try the seals, then try the brake lines., start from the bottom. good luck bro

[localboy]

yeah when i had my 125 the rear master cylendar leaked a little bit of brake fluid, and i got a master cylendar rebuild kit for like 25 dollars.

[slider]

First, pads will work great until you go metal to metal.

You likely have a mushy line. (Honda's) You cannot see or feel this but when you apply the front brake, it will swell up. Jumping and hitting the brakes when landing will make this happen faster as there is over 1000 psi in that sucker and a jolt will cause the innards to stretch some. John had this happen to his 4 month old CR250. He rebuilt the Master and Slave, samo. Had a local Honda shop work on it and they bled the front and put OEM pads on, samo. Changed eveything back and fourth from my '97 until he isolated it to the line. He kept my '97 line on it but it did the same thing in 3 weeks. We ended up buying a steel braded line to fix the bikes.

Back brake: Need more info. Did you change the back pads too or just the front? If you get oil on the pads, they will never work properly.

One last thing: Front and Rear - New pads will require a break-in period if using aftermarket pads. Can't tell you how long it will take but we use OEM from now on because of this.

[crustyfmx250]

thanks for the info, i have an old bike with good front brakes, so ill swp the line off that for a test :)

with the back brakes, it was almost the same deal with the front, they just slowly got less powerful, and take ages to stop now.

I put the new pads on about 2 weeks ago (riding everyday), but they always feel the same...

[slider]

???
Why do you need brakes, you have a throttle. :D

[84GUY125500]

You could have leaky seals in your brakes. I had that problem.. It sounds like it's the same. There 8 bucks a seal (U.S.)

[MX_etnies]

I would have to say it is the master cylinder. It is the part that compresses the fluid in the system. Which in turn applies the brakes at the wheel.

so just change that and it should be ok!

[ont.freerider]

yeah cause crusty you didnt know how brakes work right? lol

[84GUY125500]

OK Crusty. whe you bleed your brakes does air stop coming out??? If it doesn't there's a hole in your line somewhere or it could be the copper washers. If you bleed them and air stops comeing out but after a couple days you notice they still don't work there's a leak in the seals. It coul be in the master cylinder but more then likely it's the seals in you piston... When you pull your brakes in do they engage at all?

[HONDA_508]

Buy a beaded brake line bcasue the one you have might have a hole in it, if not use 2 people to do it...

[-=DV=-]

Originally posted by HONDA_508
Buy a beaded brake line bcasue the one you have might have a hole in it, if not use 2 people to do it...

gotta love when people just give the same advice thats allready been given like 10 times...

[MX_etnies]

haha, yeah thats me... i said master ylier an so did 5 others but w/e! an cruty gets moreand more advice and but no reply from him on it so...

Crusty! how is it working out for you

[crustyfmx250]

i didnt reply because it was all the same, as dv said.

i was going to switch brake lines with an old bike today...but they are different, and i snapped my front brake lever yesterday, so no testing for me

[MX_etnies]

well i am gave my 2 cents so i will leave with that.

hope something works out, and hopefully mine so i look smart. lol:D

[-=DV=-]

i hope it all works out for ya bro....im at my wits end about this clutch problem...ive rebuilt the whole clutch hydrolic system (ktm) and im still loosing all my fluid....weird thing is it doesnt appear to be going anywhere....only place it can be leaking is around the piston seal in the slave cylinder but its all new so i dunno

[crustyfmx250]

well i just swapped the front brake master cylinder & line off my old 83 cr...and it wouldnt work at all...then the master cylinder started leaking :(

so now i have no way of testing..and im not even gonna bother fixing em anymore

[MX_etnies]

that sux crusty. so are you just gonna take it in at this point, or just buy new parts?

[crustyfmx250]

ill buy a new front brake lever, but thats as far as its gonna go now.

cant be bothered spending even more money buying parts for it

[MX_etnies]

well i hope you get it going again soon~!