welcome back fight fan's, quick update on the peaky blinder project, we continue to discover the damage inflicted on the bike by the previous owners and try and put it right, case in point, the top nut that holds on the top-yoke, ragged to fuck with what i presume is a hammer and screwdriver and a pair of mole-grips, why? cleaned up on the lathe and the tooling holes re-drilled to 6mm, cleaned up the two fork-top nuts that had suffered a similar fate at the same time. attention turns to the front brake caliper, i was hoping to keep the oem, brembo gold, i tried to clean it up with brake cleaner and soapy water, no such luck, it's salt marked, stained and filthy, the hardware rusty and beyond fettling, used the old 'mr. muscle' oven cleaner to draw out the dirty anodising from the surface of the caliper, cup-brushed and finished with a quick rub with solvol, new fasteners turned up in the lathe, [stainless, coned and relieved of course] new pads, stainless bleed nipple, banjo-bolt and the back of the caliper fly cut, loses some weight, but, more importantly, looks the dogs danglies, a little detail on something you don't even see. had hoped to re-use the brake disc, but, to be honest, it was donald like everything else on this fucking bike, i order up a new brembo, serie-oro race item, a lot of money i know but when you are only running a single disc and are planning to do a closed lap of the isle of man tt circuit in september then you really need to fit the best [ bollock's, can't believe i let that slip out.......]
I really have to try that Mr. Muscle trick... calipers look the dog's, your Lovelessness!
ReplyDeleteDid you take much of the back of the caliper or was it the lightest of skims? I have one of these that I'm trying to use on my tracker project with 17" supermoto wheels but its a damn tight squeeze and I'm sure I'm going to have to lose some material of the back of the caliper.
ReplyDeletehi paul, the brembo's are quite a hefty casting and you can easily machine 2 / 2.5 mm off the back without compromising the construction, not trying to teach you to suck egg's but it's safer to bolt it to a service plate first before machining, [it's a lot easier, especially if you need to do a two-angle cut like we had to on the bonneville], used these calipers on loads of bikes, the mz racer ran tz 50 moped wheels, seventeeninch rims, so we could use race tyres, this caliper was milled, likewise the bonneville, [that was really close! ended up cutting the old disc down to use as a spacer, correct pitch circle diameter on the mountings saved loads of work and milling the back of the caliper at two different angles to miss the spokes]. i ran 17's on the harley tracker, ended up skimming the caliper again on this one too, there are pics on the blog of the different calipers and how they were fitted, it's just a matter of working your way through the old posts i'm afraid! hope this is of help, tim.
ReplyDeleteThanks bud, that's proper helpful, teach away, this is my first build so I'm learning a lot along the way. I've a mate at work who is a time served machinist and has a milling machine and lathe who does little jobs like this for me, so the bolting to a service plate tip will be passed on once he's set his workshop up again after moving house, as I put him to work for me again.
Deleteno worries, glad to help, that's what the blog is for, i go off on a tangent some times, but, it's all about the bikes at the end of the day, good luck with the build, [what are you using as a base model?, ie, engine, frame, etc], just 'mail me at tim.dog@virgin.net if you have any other questions, or post up on the blog if you prefer, tim.
Deletecheer's greg, just remember to keep the shed door open when you do, the stuff is bloody lethal if you breathe it in!
ReplyDeleteWill do!
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