Harley Brembo Rear Caliper Service
Bob LaRosaThe rear caliper on this Ultra is a Harley Brembo, four piston caliper. This is an excellent, high quality, performance caliper. There is no disassembly needed to service or inspect this area of your Ultra, unless pads are to be replaced.
Clean
With compressed air and safety glasses, blow out the Harley Brembo caliper body and brake pads. Remove as much dust as possible from this area without introducing any chemicals or solvents that may contaminate your brake pads. While doing so, it is important to inspect your inner and outer pads. Inspect how your pads are wearing. They should be wearing evenly. If they are not, it may be an indication of a warped, or scored rotor.
Inspect
Wipe off both sides of your rotor with a clean shop towel and brake cleaner. Get a good look/feel while wiping the rotor. Now is an ideal time to take an extra minute for inspection. Make sure you do not see or feel any gouging, scoring, or warping/cupping. Remember; inspection plays an important role in basic maintenance.
Knowing how to correctly inspect areas/components on your motorcycle is just as important as correctly installing them. Catching a problem during a routine inspection may save your life. Therefore, inspection is not something to just breeze through, or be taken lightly.
Next Up: Safety Check
With the rear saddlebag removed and the muffler removed, we gotta good, clear view of the new Brembo 4-piston rear caliper. Now again, unless you are replacing the brake pads, there's not much service to do other than keeping the pads and the rotor clean. I don't like to apply a lot of solvents, brake cleaners, even soap and water to the brake pad surface. All you really need to do, safety glasses, obviously, a little compressed air. Just thoroughly blow any accumulated brake dust off of the pad and out of the caliper box.
A flashlight always comes in handy. Do a good, thorough inspection, on not only the outer pad, but also the inner pad. Make sure pads are wearing evenly front-to-back, and evenly top-to-bottom. And both pads, inner and outer, are wearing evenly. You wanna make sure the retaining clip on the pad retaining pin is in its correct location.
You also wanna do an inspection of the anti-rattle shims. Make sure that they're not only in place, but are in good working order. It's as simple as looking at them, feeling them, feeling that they offer resistance to the top of the brake pad holder itself. Last in line, I just wanna use a little light solvent brake cleaner on a clean shop towel, and give the rotor a nice wipe. Wipe it inside, and out.
This'll clean off any brake dust, any accumulated road debris, but it also gives you an opportune time to inspect the rotor for any heavy gouging, any scoring, any bluing from being overheated. You can actually run your hand across it. If you feel a dish, it tells you that the rotor is warped and you need to look further into the condition of the rotor, the condition of the pads. Chances are, if you do have a warped rotor or heavily scored, the pads are gonna be wearing inconsistently with each other. And you'll pick that up when you inspect the pads or you clean the rotor.
Share tips, start a discussion or ask other students a question. If you have a question for an expert, please click here.
Already a member? Sign in
No Responses to “Harley Brembo Rear Caliper Service”