RD400 Caliper Rebuild

 

Time for the RD to get a little upgrade. The front brake has been needing a complete freshening up since I bought the smoky old girl 16 years ago. Back then finding parts was hard to do but now with the magic of E-bay and specialist bike sites with reproduction parts the brakes are deemed done. Why did it take me so long to get it done?? Maybe I was just waiting for my son to grow up and help. That sounds like a good excuse!  

    The piston seal groves were really bad and were worse than when I rebuilt the rear caliper.      

 

Pretty rough stuff getting the pistons out after 38 years of yuck. It took high air pressure from a blow gun to eject them from their home. I told my kid to expect it to be loud and BTW hold this piece of wood over it. When they did break away it left nice round marks in the wood.

Nice little glob of  rust and brake fluid sitting on that left piston. These were tossed for a fresh reproduction pair from HVC Cycle.

Garrett picking the seals out of the other half of the caliper.

I have to say the sandblaster is my favorite tool in the garage. The caliper is completely blasted and with a fresh coat of high temperature paint. I also cleaned up the dust cap for the front wheel bearing.

 

 

 

The new  to me but used master is a E-bay master off of a (can you guess) Klr650.

The original master was very crusty with some seeping out of the reservoir where it sealed to the master and also had a horrible feel.  I was never trusting it and worried one day it would pull to the bar. LOOK MA, NO BRAKES!!

Fit was perfect and the new master is so much smaller in size.

I shortened the original steel pipe that was stock. I kept it because if I did the braided line that goes straight to the master it may have been hard to keep the line off the tire when turned full lock. Yes I did a little booboo and put the sticker on before I was 100% done and rubbed some of the Y off. My next order to HVC and I’ll get another one.

I did have a chance to ride it down the street and back with a really good result. Lever is firm and pull seems correct.

My Grandfather

Years ago my Grandmother gave me these wonderful photos of my Grandpa on his Indian's. I only had the chance to meet him once that I remember and it happened at the age of 4. Not much of a memory other than me hiding behind my Dad and thinking Grandpa always looked mad. Talking to my Aunt's that is also what their boyfriend's thought of my Grandpa also. The angry look is also with my Dad and continues with me. Keeps the boys in check. 

 The only thing that my Grandmother could tell me was one of the bikes was a 1926. The picture above and below is the same bike with and without the passenger seat. The very bottom photo is a different Indian by looking at the front suspension rods not passing through the fender and also it does not have the sidecar attachment rod on the double down tubes. If you got a clue as to what year and model these are, drop me a comment.