Replacing Brake Pads - Please Help An Old Man!

[ezrydr]

Some of you may remember me; I used to be fairly active in here - then back some years ago I left, I don't even remember why but I was a very sick man at the time and in a lot of pain and I might have said anything.  Apologies to any whom I offended.

To the immediate problem: I'm trying to replace the brake pads on my 2000 Magna.  I've done this before and don't recall having any problems but as I say I've been a sick man (still am - cirrhosis of the liver, with hepatitis C on the side) and probably getting a bit senile too, so my memory is only slightly less leaky than the TITANIC.

I've got a manual which I downloaded - no doubt you're familiar with it - but it's virtually useless in this regard.  And as I say I can't remember how I did it before.

I got  the old ones out easily enough - took out the pin and they just fell out; they were really shot - but I'm playing hell getting the new ones in.  There just doesn't seem to be quite enough room - I can put either the left or right one in fairly easily but then the other one just won't go all the way.  (Kind of like this girl who - no, no, better not say that in here.)  You can tell when it stops; it's like it hits some obstacle.  The piston seems to move freely so I don't think that's it.

I'm thinking of just dismounting the whole caliper unit (without disconnecting the hose) - if nothing else I could maybe see where the problem is - but I've read posts in here that said don't do it and others that seemed to endorse the practice.  So now I'm confused.  What do you lot think?

Maddening Problem #2:  where does that damn little flat spring go?  It fell out when I pulled the old pads and I didn't see where it came from.  I've experimented some but I'm afraid if I put it in wrong something horrible might happen.  What  does it DO, anyway?  What if I just threw it away?  Bad idea, huh?  OK, then what does it do and how do I get it back in there?

Surely some of you know the answers.  Please, PLEASE help me here.  I probably don't have long to live and I'd like to ride a little more before I croak.

Oh yes - don't bother advising professional help; there are no bike shops here and no mechanics whom I'd trust with the job.  Nearest shop is in Muskogee and I can't very well ride over there with no brakes.

Help, help, help.  Please.

[Jerry G Turner]

 The reason they won't go is because the pistons are expanded, use one of the old pads and a pair of vise grips and slowly squeeze the pistons back in and then your pads will fit. As to the spring your talking about I am not sure hopefully someone else will answer good luck hope you get it together easily.

[hootmon]

When the Manual fails me (Yes, it's the Manual's fault!)
I go to YouTube.. Often find a way out with someone else's help...

Here is an example, but just go on Youtube.com and search "replace motorcycle brake pads Honda"

[ezrydr]

Thanks, guys.  I think that's right about the piston not being fully retracted; when I stick my finger in I feel something protruding just a little bit, now you mention it that's what it feels like.  Shouldn't be any big trick to shoving it in the rest of the way; it doesn't have far to go - I think a couple of millimeters or thereabouts ought to do it.

As for the Youtube suggestion, I've already been there and tried that; but I never did succeed in getting the damn thing to load.  This is nothing new for me; Youtube doesn't play well with dialup connections or old computers, and I'm stuck with both. 

But has anybody watched that one all the way through, and do you remember if it shows that spring?

Anyway it was worth going there to read the comments, because one guy recommended lubing the piston with clean brake fluid, and that sounds like a very good idea indeed.

Keep them coming, boys.  I'm pretty desperate right now - I don't have a garage (just a kind of oversized storage building, fine for protecting bikes and tools from the elements and the stickyfingered, but too little room to do any work and no electricity.)  So I'm having to work in the yard, and in this weather that's a pretty brutal business; I don't really mind the heat so much but my tools get hot enough to burn my fingers and the sun glare makes it hard to see anything - especially with only one working eye.

So thanks again, and now if I can just find somebody who knows where that spring goes....

(Honda and their damn springs...ever work on that starter clutch sprag?  Aaaagh.)

[TLRam1]

Yes a pair of channel locks will push the piston all the way back in.

The springs I don't know unless they are like the ones on cars and goes behind the pads to hold them in place and supposedly stops the squeaks. 

[TLRam1]

And Welcome back, glad to see you are still riding at 70.

[Jerry G Turner]

I think the spring you are talking about goes in the bottom of the caliper and pushes the pads upward very slightly.

[ezrydr]

Jerry, I think maybe you're onto something there.  Because the manual's instructions on reassembly include the rather cryptic line:  "Insert the pin, pushing against the pad spring."  Nothing in the graphics to show just what this means or how we're to go about doing it, but it does fit in with your idea.   

(Actually I've got a feeling that once I get that piston retracted so the pads will go in, I'll find that there's only one way the spring CAN go in.  But we shall see.)

[Jerry G Turner]

Go to bike bandit and look at the oem parts for a 2000 magna brake caliper and it shows the spring going into the bottom of the caliper.

[ezrydr]

Yep, there it is.  Jerry, YOU DA MAN!

[ezrydr]

Uh oh.  I may have gotten a bit premature with the kudos. 

See, I just went ahead and dismounted the caliper, so I could get a look at what was going on.  You were dead right about the pistons, and once I had the caliper off it was easy to compress them properly.  (I don't own a pair of vice-grips or channel-locks with a deep enough bite to get at the pistons, but I simply used a C-clamp and that was all it took.)

So I still owe you for pointing out where the problem lay; and so you remain da man. 

But the spring...Jerry, no offense, but have you ever actually done this job, on a 3d generation Magna?  Or did you just study the manual and the graphics?

Because if that spring goes in from the bottom, then I'm damned if I know WHERE - and how.  There's simply no hole, no point of access, that  I could find.

I'm sure if I took the calipers apart again I could find a way to install that spring.  But it was getting late and I was tired and...well, I just stashed the spring in a safe place and buttoned everything up and said OK, let's see if that spring actually does anything important.

And I took Maggie May for a short ride, with quite a few stops - needed to bed the pads in anyway - and bedamn if I could tell any difference.  Not even any rattles or jingles as I'd been halfway expecting. 

And so I think I'm going to leave it that way, at least for the time being.   See what happens, anyway.  After all, it's highly unlikely I'll be going for any long rides (not just because of my health; my wife has Alzheimer's and I can't leave her here alone) and I probably don't have all that long to live in any case, so I'm going to at least give it a try.

In conclusion I would say that based on this experience, getting a set  of wornout pads out of the caliper is just as quick and easy as bird doody; but putting new ones in is more akin to trying to put the doody back in the bird.

Thanks again....

[Jerry G Turner]

I have replaced the pads on a magna several times however the spring has never come out when I replaced them. Glad you have it back together I don't think the spring severs a lot of purpose so it should be fine.

[ezrydr]

Ah.  You know, I think I remember that the last time I changed those pads, I could see that spring but it didn't come out - and I was careful not to dislodge it.

I bet that's why there have been so few replies to my original question; most likely that spring tends to stay in place and rarely falls out as mine did.  Which leaves me wondering if mine has something wrong with it - bent or twisted or whatever - in which case it's probably just as well I never did manage to install it. 

Well, this has been interesting.  But I don't feel any desire to repeat the experience.  My curiosity has been pretty well satisfied on this subject.

Again, thanks, Jerry.  I couldn't have done it without your help.