2004 1150GSA, 33,000 miles.
When wheeling my bike about, I sometimes heard the odd clicking from the front brakes. My mate's old 1100 used to do this a lot and I used to think that it was worn disc-mounting screws or bobbins.
Well mine are fine and the clicking only occurred occasionally.
Yesterday I found the culprit:
The pins that locate the front pads have two quite deep grooves worn in them by the lugs on the pads.
The split-pin that stops the pad-retaining pin falling-out also prevents it from rotating, consequently, 33,000 miles worth of braking has allowed the pads to cut the grooves.
Big-up for Motobins. I ordered new pins yesterday morning and they arrived first thing today (normal post).
As an aside (or two); after seven years and the mileage I decided to replace the pads irrespective of wear. I replaced the rear pads too (not really badly worn but the third set in that mileage).
I was surprised to see just how much friction material remained on the fronts:
They went into the bin anyway.
Another discovery was that on the BMW logo'd brakes, the stainless-steel pad-retaining spring-plate held by two small stainless Allen screws.....
.....hadn't been disturbed in seven years. Any anti-seize that BMW might have used upon assembly had gone AWOL and they were as to be expected, solid.
A dread of snapping one and the consequent faff of trying to remove a snapped screw in the calliper body encouraged me to apply lots of heat, a squirt of Shock-Unlock before turning them out a little at a time (they needed frequent reapplications of heat and shock jism).
Eventually they came out accompanied by the sort of quantity of 'white powder' that would have had Pete Dougherty licking his lips.
Before reassembly, I cleaned the threads of the screws and the calliper bodies, then used plenty of Alumslip paste.
I'd advise those whose bikes are similarly equipped to try and clean these screw threads before there's a need to replace the pads. It could save a lot of time and grief later.
When wheeling my bike about, I sometimes heard the odd clicking from the front brakes. My mate's old 1100 used to do this a lot and I used to think that it was worn disc-mounting screws or bobbins.
Well mine are fine and the clicking only occurred occasionally.
Yesterday I found the culprit:
The pins that locate the front pads have two quite deep grooves worn in them by the lugs on the pads.
The split-pin that stops the pad-retaining pin falling-out also prevents it from rotating, consequently, 33,000 miles worth of braking has allowed the pads to cut the grooves.
Big-up for Motobins. I ordered new pins yesterday morning and they arrived first thing today (normal post).
As an aside (or two); after seven years and the mileage I decided to replace the pads irrespective of wear. I replaced the rear pads too (not really badly worn but the third set in that mileage).
I was surprised to see just how much friction material remained on the fronts:
They went into the bin anyway.
Another discovery was that on the BMW logo'd brakes, the stainless-steel pad-retaining spring-plate held by two small stainless Allen screws.....
.....hadn't been disturbed in seven years. Any anti-seize that BMW might have used upon assembly had gone AWOL and they were as to be expected, solid.
A dread of snapping one and the consequent faff of trying to remove a snapped screw in the calliper body encouraged me to apply lots of heat, a squirt of Shock-Unlock before turning them out a little at a time (they needed frequent reapplications of heat and shock jism).
Eventually they came out accompanied by the sort of quantity of 'white powder' that would have had Pete Dougherty licking his lips.
Before reassembly, I cleaned the threads of the screws and the calliper bodies, then used plenty of Alumslip paste.
I'd advise those whose bikes are similarly equipped to try and clean these screw threads before there's a need to replace the pads. It could save a lot of time and grief later.
