CX500 GL500 650 Global

I think ATF stands for Acrid Thin Fluid.This was the polite version<grin>

Since this thread was titled "improve braking" I figured I'd ask my question here. I took my bike apart hoping to fix my small coolant leak, but I have to wait for a yamaha seal to be ordered so I can't get that done yet, but I figured I might as well go ahead and do a few other maintenance items. My brake pads are fairly new and have a lot of meat left on them, but have started to squeal a bit, so I'm going to take them off and boil and sand them. When boiling, do you add anything to the water? How long do you leave them in? Can the same be done to the rear shoes?

The best stuff is some cheap washing soda crystals but washing up liquid will do.I just let them simmer for around 15 mins.

Don't forget to sand the back of the pads so there' no crud on them.I place a bit of wet and dry/emery cloth on a flat surface and just rub the pads on it both sides.

There are several causes of disc-pad squeal.

If the brake callipers are not retracting enough(Sub heading:Sticky callipers/Blocked Master Cylinder/Badly bled etc)
If the Discs/Rotors are warped then that can cause it because a part of the disc is still hitting the pads even when the pistons have retracted(Rare)
If the pads are glazed.
If the anti-squeal plate is missing.
Crud on the back plate.

It's one of those areas where you have to address it holistically as it can be any single one or a combination of them all.
As mentioned about once a year or longer I have to service the brakes on my Cxs as I know one or the other whenever they decide may start squeaking.There's no rhyme or reason to it but age I guess."Pinky" went two years without a noise and then I had to do her twice that year to get rid of the squeal as it came back but the braking was still 100% even with the squeal.
"Go Figure" as my colonial brothers are apt to say<grin>

I'll tell y'all, boiling works! At least it did for me, after boiling my pads, sanding them some, and spraying everything with brake cleaner, my front and rear are both as quiet as ever. The only thing I can't figure out now is why is seems like my front pads don't have as much bite as they did before. I know there's absolutely no way they got contaminated with any grease, I hosed them down with brake cleaner several times. Is it possible boiling them did something to them unexpected? They aren't bad, it just seems like it takes a little more effort to get the same braking.

kingston73 wrote:I'll tell y'all, boiling works! At least it did for me, after boiling my pads, sanding them some, and spraying everything with brake cleaner, my front and rear are both as quiet as ever. The only thing I can't figure out now is why is seems like my front pads don't have as much bite as they did before. I know there's absolutely no way they got contaminated with any grease, I hosed them down with brake cleaner several times. Is it possible boiling them did something to them unexpected? They aren't bad, it just seems like it takes a little more effort to get the same braking.

What I have found is over a period of time the travel in Brake lever gets less.This makes us think that the brakes are better.When they have been well serviced the brake travel goes back to what it should be.This also means that the pistons in the callipers are pulling out more away from the discs hence less chance of brake squeal plus of course less gunk on the pads that my keep the pads closer to the discs.Even with correct bleeding it may seem there's more brake travel but so long as the brakes do their job I don't concern myself about it.

My 10 penn'th .

I changed to 20 w fork oil on my GL500, I do a lot of riding with a pillion, and luggage and was finding the nose diving was getting to much compared to solo riding. I must admit its been a great upgrade. I always use a large volume syringe to measure and pump the oil into the fork legs!

regards Royston

It's such a simple and cheap upgrade.It's amazing what a bit of oil can do for the performance of the suspension and thus the brakes

Forces that enable the acceleration and braking of your tires are forces of friction. More importantly, the friction between tire and road surface, which depends mainly on the area of rubber on asphalt. A more tires should not really make a big difference in performance. It can even do the opposite, because it will increase the inertia and mass of the car a bit like Roger S said.