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5th gen front end / front brake issues.


MidTNJasonF

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My 98 was down and some point in its past before my ownership. Something is off in the front right fork tube, brake caliper, or wheel and I can not seem to sort it.

I thought a warped or damaged rotor was the obvious simple culprit. but I swapped a known good rotor onto the bike with new pads and the issue remains. I even went so far as to check it for runout and flatness before it was installed (lathe and a dial indicator). 

I can look down at the front right caliper while riding and I can see the caliper pulse side to side. There is little to no noticeable noise or vibration when rolling forward. When rolling the bike backwards it does make a fairly harsh metallic grinding noise/pulse at a point in the rotation. It is not a constant grinding noise. 

I have had the calipers and rotors off the bike a dozen times. I have not found anything obviously tweaked. I have taken a stone and a file to make sure no burrs or dings were on the mounting surfaces. 

At this point I am ready to start throwing parts at it and undergo a front end rebuild/upgrade while I am at it. 

Any thoughts before I try to source some new forks, a new caliper, yet more rotors, and all the parts to rebuild the forks?

 


Other things. The wheels have been balanced. The left side caliper is rock steady with no pulsing or movement while riding. Currently all parts except the pads are OEM Honda with no aftermarket components. There is no obvious damage to the wheels or the tubes like gouges, scratches, ect. 
 

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21 minutes ago, VFR750F3 said:

did you recenter the forks per the honda manual.

Not sure what the honda manual directly describes but tube depth in the clamps was measured with digital calipers. The axle fits through cleanly so no binding i.e. one fork lower sitting further forward than the other.  

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  • Member Contributer

Might want to check run-out on both rotors again...easy to tweak a carrier...if you bend the carrier it can pull the rotor out of parallel locally...by a few ten thou easily. 

 

IF the lower fork is sitting further forward than the other one...I'd go through the process of loosening all the triples with the axle in again...getting the fork heights correct...and as per the manual making sure its as close to aligned as possible first before throwing the front wheel on again.  IF the fork legs are bent...loosen the front forks in the triple and rotate and see if it precesses around...(like checking runout--but I don't think the lowers are all that symmetric).  I would think the bottom bolt would stay centered if the forks are straight...

 

IF the brake is pulsing...most likely culprit with my direct experience is the rotor carrier is bent...I've bent mine back and gotten runout better than from the factory...quite a few posts on that.

 

Matt in Haymarket

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  • 1 month later...

Never followed back up on this post. Problem has been resolved. 

I had on hand or ordered, get this, not 1, not 2, but 3 used rotors that all had issues. They all had some degree of warp or bend in the carrier. 

Sucked it up and bought some new wave rotors and they are running nice and true. Front caliper movement is virtually non existent now and there is no odd drag when freely rotating the wheel and rotor. 

 

 

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