i have an 01 klr650. i was replacing the brake pads the other day and have a couple questions,

1- with the rear brakes, the feel is very soft, the old pads weren't biting anymore and when i replaced the pads, the were about halfway done but i replaced them anyway. the pads bite and hold the bike in place but still feels soft. i noticed when i was replacing the pads that the piston was already pushed in, i didn't have to manually force it back into the caliper. is this normal? should i try bleeding the brakes to see if maybe i got some air trapped in there?

2- the front brake caliper, i was replacing these pads, were almost completly worn out, i noticed that the seal around the piston seemed to be popping out. i pushed and forced it back into the groove. i haven't test ridden it yet but the front brake seems to grab ok. i was just wondering how involved is a caliper rebuild, is it something that anyone can do or what?

3- alot of people with a klr650 tend to go with an oversized rotor, caliper reloctaion kit set up along with steel braided lines for improved feel and all. will changing the rotor necessitate replacing the caliper itself also or can you run an oversized rotor with the stock caliper?

thanks in advance,
Louis

 

Welcome. I'm sure you've found KLR650.net, right?

As for the brakes, definitely bleed them. I bled my KLR's brakes this weekend and found lots of corrosion coming out with the old fluid.

Anyone can rebuild a caliper with the manual handy.

The EBC kit uses the OEM caliper.

 

Rear will usually have a lot less feel than the fronts... I've tried new pads, rotors, lines, fluid and my rear brake is always numb. I blame physics...

Rebuilding a caliper is straight forward, just make sure to replace all the seals and I would swap out to stainless lines and fresh fluid while you are there. And a good trick when bleeding is to put a zip-tie over the brake lever once you pull it in as far as you can over night.... a lot of the bubbles will come out of the master cylinder. Tap the brake lines also

 

yeah i've been looking around klr650.net, thanks for the head's up tho...

the thing with the rear brake is that it used to feel better before but one day i put the bike down on the right side coming out of a parking lot with a nasty decline (some bastard of a driver jumped out in front of me when i was about to jump out into traffic, i slammed the brakes, lost my balance had to lean the bike down before i could pick it up and right it again) and the brake felt soft to me ever since.


also, the screws on the front brake reservoir seem to be siezed in and i'm doing a decent job of stripping them instead of removing them. what is the best way to get them out, reverse drilling them out? would i have to worry about damaging the reservoir? should i take it to a kawi dealership or regular bike repair shop and have them do it?

 

Kawasaki uses butter based steel for all the nuts and bolts on the KLR. To remove the reservoir cover, make sure you're using a #3 Philips. You will strip it trying to take it out with a #2.

 

thanks, i'm gonna try it with a #3. hopefully it isn't stripped too much yet.

 

Your rear brake will always feel softer than your front ones. There is a scientific reason behind it. It's the same reason why rear wheel drive vehicles are preferred in high performance cars.

 

yeah, i understand about the rear brake feeling softer than the front, however my issue with it is that it used to not feel this soft. it happened all of a sudden after laying the bike down on the right side, it lost it's bike. but now i got a new prob, i slid the bike coming from a complete stop (first time riding with new tires on wet pavement, my previous semi-bald tires had more grip) and now it feels the bike is leaning right when i'm riding it. i swear it is like one thing after another after another.