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How To Grease The Front Brake Slider Pins


Guest vfrmikie

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Guest vfrmikie

Hi there, I have searched, but to no avail. My front wheel has a screatching sound on occasion. I believe it to be the brake slider pins are sticking, how do I go about greasing them, and what grease should I use. I have an 02 vfr non abs with 30k on it. I don't believe its the front bearings because when I take the calipers off, the wheel spins freely. and when I took the calipers off and pushed the pads back by hand the problem when away for awhile. its only noticeable at slow speeds. thanks in advance.

Mike

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You can check if your sliders are sticking when you take your calipers off and see if the slider moves. But you might as well give the caliper a good cleaning if you're going to take it off.

There is a special grease for the slider pins. You can get it at any auto parts store.

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Use high temp caliper grease made for the application. Also, be sure to clean any corrosion off the pins if it is present to remove roughness and possible increased friction. I use black emory cloth to clean the pins; you can spin them slowly in a drill and move a strip of e cloth up and down to get an even surface or do it by hand.

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The slider pins, if gold colored, are cad plated. This is for corrosion resistance. You do not want to use anything abrasive on them to clean them, or you will take the plating off.

Use Permatex Ultra Disc Brake Caliper Lube, not regular grease.

http://www.permatex.com/products/product-categories/specialized-maintenance-repair/brake-maintenance-repair/permatex-ultra-disc-brake-caliper-lube-detail

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The slider pins, if gold colored, are cad plated. This is for corrosion resistance. You do not want to use anything abrasive on them to clean them, or you will take the plating off.

Good point... :blush:

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You can use silicone grease on the slider pins. Which ever you use, use it sparingly, they only need a thin film.

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I also put a very thin film of caliper grease on the backs of the pads. That can be a source of squeaking if it is metal to metal. On my CB1R I didn't need to do that since there is a white fiber pad backing up the pads. My pad pins have not had the gold colored coating on 2004 VFR, 2006 ST1300, or 2011 CB100R. Is that on the 5th gens?

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Thank you everyone for the answers so far. How do I go about greasing them? Do I need to take the calipers apart completely to get to them? I'm trying to go by process of elimination and do the easiest fixes first to fix the screatching. I'm hoping the slider pins would be a good way to start. I'm somewhat mechanically inclined and want to learn how to do all my own maintenance as this is my first bike. If there is a link or video showing me how to do this procedure, I'd love to see it. If I have to take the calipers apart, I might aswell clean them aswell. Is there a post or link to doing that? I hope I don't sound like a nimrod, lol, but I'm all about the DYI. Thanks again.

Mike

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Download the service manual from this site.

Sent from my DROID RAZR HD using Tapatalk 2

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I did, and it did not mention anything about slider pins in the calipers. Would they be known by another name? Or are similar to the so called "muffler bearings"? Lol.

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I did, and it did not mention anything about slider pins in the calipers. Would they be known by another name? Or are similar to the so called "muffler bearings"? Lol.

Pad pins. Page 15-17 in service manual...

However, if your pistons/seals are grungy this will not help that. For that you need to disassemble the calipers and service the seals and pistons.

VFR brake pads

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Not the pad pins. That hold the pads on the calipers. The two pins that the caliper can move on. One pin is on the caliper, the other is on the mount.

When you take the caliper off the forks, you should be able to just pull the caliper off the mount. Pull the rubber boots off, clean them out with a cue tip, wipe clean the pins, and reapply grease. You can try to jam some in the boot if you want, but not too much. Just coat the pins and slide the caliper back together, then wipe the excess grease off.

Use that permatex caliper grease stuff posted earlier. Lid has a brush on it.

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Advice should be left to those that know what they are talking about...

Sorry for the wrong info.

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The pad pins are plated, but as soon as the bike has been used at all the plating is worn off where the pads slide, so you aren't hurting anything by polishing them. Maybe don't do it if you plan to never touch the calipers again for the rest of your life and are terrified of a little surface corrosion.These pins get marred up and ridged after some decent use, and that stops them from operating properly. Not only do I spin them in a drill and polish to a mirror finish, I also chamfer and polish the corresponding holes in the pads to make it work even better. Depending on the casting of you brake pad base the holes in them can cause your pads to be misaligned, when this happens I do a little shaping as well to make the pad sit straight. Something else I do is clean, debur, and polish the caliper slide pins in basically the same fashion. I do this on pretty much every bike, once done, it only takes some cleaning and grease to maintain both types of pins. Just inspect them every time you do pads. If you find they are in great condition to start, its obviously not necessary.

P.S. I always notice better braking performance after these modifications.

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The pad pins are plated, but as soon as the bike has been used at all the plating is worn off where the pads slide, so you aren't hurting anything by polishing them. Maybe don't do it if you plan to never touch the calipers again for the rest of your life and are terrified of a little surface corrosion.These pins get marred up and ridged after some decent use, and that stops them from operating properly. Not only do I spin them in a drill and polish to a mirror finish, I also chamfer and polish the corresponding holes in the pads to make it work even better. Depending on the casting of you brake pad base the holes in them can cause your pads to be misaligned, when this happens I do a little shaping as well to make the pad sit straight. Something else I do is clean, debur, and polish the caliper slide pins in basically the same fashion. I do this on pretty much every bike, once done, it only takes some cleaning and grease to maintain both types of pins. Just inspect them every time you do pads. If you find they are in great condition to start, its obviously not necessary.

P.S. I always notice better braking performance after these modifications.

Is it possible to do this maintenance to the caliper slide pins without disassembling the entire caliper/piston/seals? I only have less than 5k miles and really don't want to remove the pistons and service the seals yet.

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You don't have to remove the pistons to do this. I know the one slide pin screws out. I'm not certain of the other one. And the pad pin also screws out.

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You don't have to remove the pistons to do this. I know the one slide pin screws out. I'm not certain of the other one. And the pad pin also screws out.

Yeah I knew about the pad pin...LOL

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  • 3 years later...
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On 2013-08-20 at 4:55 PM, 2thdr said:

I also put a very thin film of caliper grease on the backs of the pads. That can be a source of squeaking if it is metal to metal. [...]

[Old post I know but people reference this stuff for years]

Do not apply caliper lube or grease to the backs of the brake pads. This is not in the service manual for a reason and our bike's brakes differ from car calipers in this way. More info here: http://www.southbayriders.com/forums/threads/140517/#post-1930527

quote: " you NEVER put grease on brake pads) It also causes the grease to wick into the porous pad material (ruining the pads) straight through to the rotor surface when the back of the pad has been drilled. Some pads are made like this. "

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