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Replacing the Master Cylinder and Brakelines on the Honda Silverwing
By Thom | January 20, 2009
The brakes on my Honda Silverwing were in rough shape. The lines were most likely original from the days when gas was under a dollar a gallon. The master cylinder, though recently cleaned out and flushed, was getting small cracks in the plastic and was starting to yellow. I searched on choppercharles.com and found that you could easily replace the Silverwing’s master cylinder with anything that had the same outlet fitting and fit the handle bars.
I decided that a master cylinder from a sport bike, in my case a 1996 Honda CBR600RR, would have better displacement and force compared to stock. I happened to find one on eBay that was only 4.99 after the original bike had been totaled.
I also went with stainless steel lines from JDA Enterprises – stainless steel lines are good for 20 years compared to normal rubber lines, which are only good for around 5 years. Stainless doesn’t expand the way that rubber does under pressure so the braking response is much better and they are not porous like rubber. I called JDA and was able to verify that my new master cylinder and lines would meet up with the rest of the Silverwing’s components.
I found that using a vacuum bleeder is really the way to go. The vacuum bleeding system sucks the fluid from the master cylinder cup and pulls it through the lines. Replacing your system using the old fashioned pump-open-close-pump system works, but the bleeder works much better.
Word of warning – brake fluid is corrosive stuff, put down a copious amount of shop rags on any place that you don’t want ruined (that means everything). Also, you will go through several bottles of brake fluid, so buy a couple, it takes a lot of patients and dedication to get brakes that work well. Just keep at it!
So here we go:
You will need:
- Several bottles of brake fluid – I went with DOT4 with my new set up due to the new master cylinder, but Honda recommends DOT 3
- New brake lines with enough crush washers – Supplied by JDA in my case
- Wrenches, sockets, and a torque wrench
- Plenty of rags to cover everything, some people also use aluminum foil as it prevents any fluid from soaking through but rags are generally free
- New master cylinder – ebay is the best bet for a new master
- Shop manual – very helpful, you can download yours on choppercharles.com
- Teflon tape – I found that if you totally remove the small bleeding nipple and wrap it in teflon tape, you greatly reduce the amount of air that can leak into the line once the nipple is open during bleeding.
Helpful Note: I have a GL500I with a full touring package, so I chose to take off the bike’s fairing because it’s much, much easier to get to the banjo fittings, plus if you do accidentally spill, the fluid will wind up on the garage floor and not on your plastic.
First up: drain the system, I found that opening the lines for a while along with sucking all of the old fluid out of the cylinder was the best way to go. This is where the vacuum bleeder came in handy as most of the system was empty before we took the lines off.
Helpful Note: put on your 8 mm wrench prior to connecting your drain hose
Next step: Take off the lines one at a time and match the old line up with your new stainless line. Helpful note: I found that it was easy to mark each line with some duct tape so that I mounted them correctly. A little more work in the front end, makes it so much easier.
Next step: Bolt your new lines on, paying special attention to their orientation and using new crush washers – your old ones are already crushed! (Some people choose to anneal their old ones which works too, but I was supplied the number needed by JDA). Also, make sure that you properly route the top line from the master cable. There are two crush washers per banjo fitting.
Next Step: Torque everything down. I started with the smallest torque value given in the bike’s manual and worked my way up after I discovered a small leak on the right hand side. It’s important that you don’t over-torque anything, so double check!
Next Step: Remove the bleeding nipple and wrap the threads in one layer of Teflon tape (sorry, I don’t have a picture of this) then place them back in the caliper. I had a problem with little air bubbles constantly making their way through the nipples and into the line. The tape solved the problem for me.
After that: Then fill and bleed the system until you start to feel some pressure in the lines. Then bleed some more – remember what I said about buying a couple more bottles of fluid? Helpful note: It’s a lot easier to do this with more than one person. One person works the vacuum pump while the other monitors the fluid level.
You will go through a lot of fluid as you will have to suck all of the air out of the lines. Sometimes it works best to do a combination of the old close/squeeze/open method while using the bleeder. Also, I didn’t have any problems getting pressure at the handle, but some people report having troubles and so you may have to take off the master’s line and put your finger over the hole, build up pressure and then reattach the line. — drastic and messy!
After you have sufficient pressure – Final step: Tie the handle back to the handle bar over night. I have heard that this will cause the remaining air bubbles to infuse back into the fluid. The next morning, bleed one more time and enjoy your new lines!
End result: (bad pictures, but you get the drift)
Similar Posts:
- Honda Silverwing Gl500 or CX500 Service or Parts Manual Download
- Eastward Distraction – Day One
- Adding a CB Radio To Your Honda Silverwing
- Using Bloglines – Why I love it
- Adding a GPS to your Honda Silverwing
Topics: How To's | 7 Comments »
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May 26th, 2009 at 10:08 am
Thanks — I’ve just bought an ‘82 SilverWing, and the brakes aren’t great. This looks like a good early project to work on!
July 12th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
vrotmnenogi