1981 Honda

Message

milehighguy · Wed Jun 14, 2006 10:47 am

I have a 1981 Honda that has been stored indoors for 10 years. The brake lever is frozen so to say, the pistons are both retracted, and there is not any noticable indicators of rust or buildup. Bleeders are easily loosened, but unable to squeeze lever. Can the master cylinder, and calipers, be safely soaked in kerosene to free them, without inflicting any further damage?

TechTMW · #2 Unread post by **TechTMW** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 11:59 am

Probably not. You can try it, but 10 years out of use is death on the rubber seals in both the master cylinder and the calipers. Not to mention, the water that has precipitated into the brake fluid in that time has probably caused oxidation in the calipers.

honda750 · #3 Unread post by **honda750** » Wed Jun 14, 2006 2:47 pm

i have a 1981 honda cb750c which was sitting for a while when i got it as well. One of the issues i ran into with the brakes was that the pins that the brake pads slide on were badly scored. The rough edgres on the holes of the pads would grind into the pins. You can buy new pins online for 7 bucks each, and that will let the pads slide. The other thing is, the large pins which the calliper rides on to close and open have rubbers which can be badly damaged sitting. If you clean out all of the collected dirt in there the calliper will close much easier and will give you a better test. When mine were locked up, though, the lever would still pull in, but it wouldn't do anything to the pads. One other things, this website is great with diagrams and parts. http://www.bikebandit.com/partsbandit/OEM-Parts.asp
it really helped me
good luck!
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