Forums/Tips & Tricks
Spongy brake fix
Mark Navyac
posted this on August 21, 2010 14:51
Today I pulled my Husaberg FE570 out of the garage after sitting for 2 weeks and immediately noticed a really soft front brake, to the point that the lever could touch the bars (it was no where close before). I started by trying to conventionally bleed the circuit for about 5-10 minutes, but fluid was coming out slowly and the lever wasn't firming up. So I removed the front wheel and brake pads, cleaned up the caliper pistons with some brake cleaner, sprayed them with WD-40, and then pressed them into the caliper slowly. I repeated this process about 5 times, then reinstalled the brake pads and front wheel. The firmness returned 100% after this procedure. I went ahead and bleed the front caliper (the conventional way) again to clean out all the out fluid.
Comments
Do a "quicky" brake bleed...
1) Tilt your handlebars to the left to get your master cylinder as high as possible and to remove any "blind spots" in the brake line.
2) Place your knee against your brake caliper and *GENTLY* press in on the caliper ... while holding the wheel in place.
(This forces the piston back into the cylinder bore ... and forces brake fluid back up to the master cylinder. And *possibly* forcing loose any captured air bubbles.)
3) "Gently* and slowly pump your front brake back up until it's firm again.
4) Repeat steps 3 and 4 a couple of times.
DON'T OVERDO THE PRESSURE OR HOW MANY TIMES YOU DO THIS! You can force brake fluid past the master cylinder seals if you're not careful.
Best of luck, eh! E-Ticket
Thanks for the advice. My 400EXC was soft and the above advice fixed the problem.
+1 done this on all my KTM's over the years even did it on a Honda 450X the other day.