SMALLKAT

[Smallkat]

Tank off and the cable labelled 'front' is on the back.

It's a bit of a fight to get them off, but even worse getting them back on. About 2 hours of fiddling and cursing. Anyway, I am now fully qualified to carry out keyhole surgery.

[Smallkat]

I have used the Venhill Powerhose Plus system for the front hoses.

You buy ready made hoses that come in length increments of 25mm. Then you buy whatever ends you want. In my case a straight M10 at both ends. You loosely assemble the hoses on the bike and when you are happy with the alignment, you just tighten up the collars to secure the banjo. Quite simple and £58 for the pair from ebay.

I am now trying to bleed them, but even with a vacuum pump there is still air stuck in the caliper. I am leaving it overnight with the lever zip-tied back to the handlebar to see if that does the trick.

[fossie]

If that fails try tying the calliper above the mastercyl and lock the lever back.

[SamK]

I put Venhill hoses on my popup front brake and clutch.
Found it much easier to bleed from the master cylinder end. The bubbles just wanted to escape that way. With the cap/lid removed, gently pump the lever a couple of times, hold for a few seconds and release slowly. Pumping too strongly squirts brake fluid all over the place. More bubbles every time until they were no more.
Although I did spend a lot of time trying to bleed from the calliper with no success first.

[sparki]

venhill are great.... just order off their website and you can get pretty much get any colour/style/fitting combo you want - fast shipping and friendly to deal with if there's an issue

[Smallkat]

Thanks for all the advice guys. It's still a little spongey, so I will give your suggestions a try.

Hopefully it will be ready for mot next week.

[Smallkat]

Smallkat is finished (for now). It starts, runs perfectly and stops (with irritating long-travel spongey lever feel).

Got its MOT yesterday.

[fossie]

The long travel could easily be the adjustable lever, worn ...a new one is cheap enough ..or fillin the indentation .

[fossie]

For what it's worth my experience with 400 4 pot tokicos .After a while ( I was dispatching it) the lever became as you described ...the filling of the indentation with araldite worked ...in that covered the real reason ....it is important that all 4 Pistons move out together , usually the bigger ones moved out to meet the pads Then the smaller ones joined in , all fractionally in time and movement but it was the cause , even after they had been stripped cleaned , new seals ....
Finally I found a worn away or damaged slit in the groove the piston seal sits in , then more , though this was after 100,000.
I tried to retro fit 80's brakes becausev with no rubber boots on the Pistons every pad change meant a strip down ...( every 2 month!)

[Smallkat]

Thanks for that Fossie, but....

New Suzuki piston and cup seal
New pattern lever
New genuine Suzuki caliper rebuild kits
Calipers thoroughly cleaned before installation of kits

I like your idea of the differential movement of the pistons. I told my mot guy that the brakes weren't great, he said he'd had worse!