Front Brake Pulsation

[Ramalama]

Ok, so I have a 93 Vmax that has had the front end converted to USD. As best I can tell it has an MEK triple clamp set with FZR1000 forks, calipers, and rotors. The rotors are EBC Pro Lite MD2003. The bike was converted when I bought it and in my excitement I completely forgot to ask about the front end, but like I said, I'm pretty sure it's all FZR1000 parts. Anyways, the front brakes have a serious pulsation in them so I'm thinking that the front rotors are warped. What kills me is that they look to be damn near new. Has anyone had or heard of warping problems with the EBC rotors? I saw one thread on here that started out talking about it but quickly changed to Chinese rotors so I thought I would ask again and see what turned up.

 

[CaptainKyle]

Warping can happen with any rotor. I have seen a lot of people put the rotor against the pad on the tire machine not paying atttention & bend rotors when breaking down a tire. I would put a dial indicator on the rotor & go from there.

 

[SpecOps13]

I agree, you need a dial indicator check to see which one and how much...

BTW: Good Luck....


Cool Front Wheel... When do we get to see the whole bike?? I like the Red...

 

[Ramalama]

I agree, you need a dial indicator check to see which one and how much...

BTW: Good Luck....


Cool Front Wheel... When do we get to see the whole bike?? I like the Red...

Here's the whole bike and a link to my photobucket album.

http://s218.photobucket.com/albums/cc101/PsycoSpartan/1993 Yamaha VMax/

 

[SpecOps13]

Man, that's Beautiful....:biglaugh:

 

[Ramalama]

Warping can happen with any rotor. I have seen a lot of people put the rotor against the pad on the tire machine not paying atttention & bend rotors when breaking down a tire. I would put a dial indicator on the rotor & go from there.

I guess I can swipe a dial indicator from work and go from there. Thanks for the advice.

 

[CaptainKyle]

I guess I can swipe a dial indicator from work and go from there. Thanks for the advice.

I almost bought that bike I wished I was having these problems instead of you.LOL

 

[Ramalama]

I almost bought that bike I wished I was having these problems instead of you.LOL

Lol, there have been a few other quirks with it as well.....Had to paint the tank, the center seat piece was cracked so I had the whole seat recovered, the front brakes pulsate, and the steering stabilizer leaked like hell so I had to rebuild it. I don't mind the work though, gives me something to do in the evenings.

BTW, if anyone has a hyperpro stabilizer and needs to rebuild it, you can get the seals and o-rings all for about $20 and do it yourself very easily rather than paying hyperpro $150 and waiting on them to do it.

 

[CaptainKyle]

Lol, there have been a few other quirks with it as well.....Had to paint the tank, the center seat piece was cracked so I had the whole seat recovered, the front brakes pulsate, and the steering stabilizer leaked like hell so I had to rebuild it. I don't mind the work though, gives me something to do in the evenings.

BTW, if anyone has a hyperpro stabilizer and needs to rebuild it, you can get the seals and o-rings all for about $20 and do it yourself very easily rather than paying hyperpro $150 and waiting on them to do it.

I would have repainted it any way I am not a red fan to each there own though. The bike had a very good price for the amount of mods done on it even for the work you had to do.

 

[Ramalama]

I would have repainted it any way I am not a red fan to each there own though. The bike had a very good price for the amount of mods done on it even for the work you had to do.

I'm not a big fan of red either. I only had the tank repainted b/c it only cost me $100 and the big chip in it was driving me batshit. My paint guy quoted me $400 for a cobalt blue kandy job so I'm eventually going to get the whole bike painted. It'll be a while before I get it done though.

Overall, I really couldn't be any more pleased with this bike than I am. It's a real pleasure to ride.

 

[CaptainKyle]

I'm not a big fan of red either. I only had the tank repainted b/c it only cost me $100 and the big chip in it was driving me batshit. My paint guy quoted me $400 for a cobalt blue kandy job so I'm eventually going to get the whole bike painted. It'll be a while before I get it done though.

Overall, I really couldn't be any more pleased with this bike than I am. It's a real pleasure to ride.

That is a good price for true candy paint I could not do it quite that cheap the only diffrence would be mine would be exchange & your bike would never be down.

 

[Rollie]

I saw the bike this past Saturday at Bikelanta , here in Conyers. Waited around a while but nobody ever showed up and I had to leave before the bikini contest started. It looks very nice , lots of expensive mods , including the expensive Millenium swingarm , Mek triple trees & USD forks , flatsides , etc. We'll have to get together soon and let 'em rip , Red vs Blue .

unk:

 

[KJShover]

Great looking ride. unk:

It could be warped, but thats not as common as you'd think. It takes some good abuse or neglect to warp some breaks (unless low quality). What is common among floating and semi floating rotors, is acute seizing around the button areas. it doesn't take a bunch of sand or silt to get in there and freeze the motion of the rotors.

Hit the buttons with some brake clean then put some graphite lube around the buttons and take a rubber mallet and give them a tap. This should free them up if they are getting sticky.

I've seen a few bikes with this problem, mine included. This fixed it up and now haven't seen a bit of pulse since.

 

[SpecOps13]

When you get all the seemingly minor problems fixed, it'll Live Long and Prosper.... I am a Red Fan...:rofl_200:

Good Luck......

 

[jfeagins]

I bought an EBC replacement rotor for my Venture Royale one time. It lasted about a week before it became so loose between the inner/outer halves, it was dangerous. I tried for two months to get a response from anyone at EBC to no avail. I'll never knowingly buy an EBC product again, though I suspect some of the aftermarket pads i've acquired for the Max are EBC but packaged with a different name.

 

[98Redlne]

Great looking ride. unk:

It could be warped, but thats not as common as you'd think. It takes some good abuse or neglect to warp some breaks (unless low quality). What is common among floating and semi floating rotors, is acute seizing around the button areas. it doesn't take a bunch of sand or silt to get in there and freeze the motion of the rotors.

Hit the buttons with some brake clean then put some graphite lube around the buttons and take a rubber mallet and give them a tap. This should free them up if they are getting sticky.

I've seen a few bikes with this problem, mine included. This fixed it up and now haven't seen a bit of pulse since.

I was thinking the same thing. I have had that happen to my bike as well.

 

[MaxMidnight]

+1

Also check for thickness variation in the disk's. You don't need much to give a judder as the caliper pistons are being forced out (and come back in) at the same time.

Conversely, with a warped disk, as one side of the caliper pistons moves in, the other side will move out. As a result you can have far more warpage on a disk before you will notice any pulsing.

 

[Ramalama]

Thanks for the compliments and suggestions!

I think I will be looking into the seized button theory tonight since I forgot to bring home a dial indicator. This seems very possible since I think the bike may have sat unridden for a period of time before I bought it. Also, I noticed that the outer half of the rotor never seems to be centered on the inner half when looking at the gap in the buttons. Maybe this is normal , but I never noticed it on any of my previous bikes. It sure would be nice to get rid of that pulsation without it costing me any money.

 

[Ramalama]

Last night I checked to see if the outer rotor halves were moving freely on the buttons and they definitely seemed a bit tight. I tapped on the edge of the rotors with a rubber mallet and after a few taps back and forth they seemed to move a bit more freely. I will say, though, the left side looked to have a bit of corrosion around the buttons and seemed almost like it was stuck. I had to give it a few more whacks and then it gave a bit of a pop and started moving around. I haven't ridden the bike yet to see if there was any improvement, but I have my fingers crossed.

Update - I just went for a quick ride and I think that did the trick. The difference was amazing!! KJShover, you just saved me a bucket load of money. Thanks!!!

 

[KJShover]

:thumbs up:

Cool, glad to hear it helped.