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Home Maintenance Lesson 1 : Change Your Brake Pads
Need to change you Pads and cant afford to get a workshop to do it.?
Here's the first of hopefully a few "How Too's" for simple home servicing.
As you know brakes are pretty important. But if left neglected you will have metal on metal, which means sparks as you go into the ass end of a taxi. Pads should be changed once the material has worn down to the wear indicator.
Ok Before you start. Some warnings.
Certain friction materials, insulating, sealing and other products such as brake pads, clutch linings, gaskets etc, contain asbestos or other carcinogenic nasty shit that you seriously want to avoid. Extreme care must be taken to avoid the inhalation of dust from such products. Always work in a well ventillated area.
Brake Hydraulic Fluid can harm your eyes and damage painted surfaces, so use extreme caution when handling and pouring it, and cover surfaces with a rag.
No liability can be accepted by the author for loss, damage or injury caused by any errors, or omissions from, the information given. If you dont think you have the right skills or tools to do the job, take you bike to a Service agent.
If you have ridden the bike recently, be weary that the pads and discs may still be hot.
Click the pictures for a larger size version.
WHAT YOU WILL NEED
New brake pads
12mm Socket
Breaker Bar
Torque wrench
Small pliers
Syringe
Gloves
Locktite
This Guide
There's not much pad left there TRX!!!!!! It's time to change them.
Start time. 10:39am
Park bike on its side stand.
Here’s your brake caliper.
Using a breaker bar with a 12mm socket undo the mounting bolts. There should be locktite on the thread so a fair amount of force might be needed.
Remove the caliper from the disc. As you can see, there is not much friction material left. Make sure you have gloves on because brake dust is nasty shit.
Remove the dust cover from the top of the caliper. Note the arrangement of the pins etc. Remove the Small Clips.
Withdraw the two rods and the plate, the old pads should fall out.
Check the difference between the olds pads and the new ones.
You can see the pistons are exposed. Here comes the brute force bit. Using you manly skills, or a flat bit of wood if you're a nancy; push the pistons back into the calipers. Do not use anything that will damage the surface of the pistons.
When your push your pistons back into the caliper, the fluid level in the reservoir will rise. If your brake fluid reservoir is full to begin with, you will need to drain some fluid out with a syringe to prevent an overflow. (Draining out some fluid, about 20-30 ml as needed).
Once you have pushed the pistons back into the caliper, you can insert the new pads, and place back the rods, plate, and two clips as you found them.
Put the dust cap back on.
Re-mount caliper and tighten bolts to specified torque setting. Put some locktite onto the thread to prevent them vibrating loose.
Once your calipers are back in place with new pads, pump your brake leaver several times to push the pads up to the disc; otherwise you won't be stopping in a hurry.
New pads installed
That's all folks. Obviously if your bike has dual front discs then you need to change the pads on both calipers. Hence repeat the process.
All done by 11:17am just over ˝ an hour. Too easy.
© 2004 TRX.
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If you still burn your hands, don't fiddle with your bike, ever. 
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