Tallulah TLC
So, I managed to get Tallulah through her MOT, with a little hiccough when the battery went flat. Something to investigate. She was also due a mini service, you know the thing, oil & filter service, checking brakes, steering, fasteners, in fact everything you should normally do before an MOT.
Yes, I did check the critical bits, chain, lights & made
sure the brakes were working, but I didn’t do everything I usually do. Don’t
know why, but maybe I was concentrating more on Tabitha, at least until I sent
the carbs & forks off for some attention.
So, the car was wheeled out of the garage and Tallulah was
moved to the centre so I could work on her.
Thing is, one of the front callipers was still sticking,
despite me attacking them with an old toothbrush and some brake cleaner. Then I
realised that I’d had her for over two years and not once had I cleaned the
brake callipers properly. Time to change the seals so some were ordered from
Sprint Manufacturing. I already had some oil, so just the filter to order &
I was ready to go.
At this point I should have guessed that Tallulah was not
going to go down without a fight and that came once I’d removed the callipers. The
pistons on the sticking calliper were stuck solid. My brake piston removers did
not budge them and even pumping the brake lever barely moved them. Things were
going to get messy.
I removed the callipers from the bike completely, which to
be fair, I had to do any way. Cutting a piece of old bicycle inner tube into a
protective strip, I grabbed a pair of mole grips to try to remove the pistons. By
this time, I had given up all pretence of being able to remove the pistons without
damaging them and was busy trying to source new replacements anyway.
It must have taken a good 20 minutes to remove the first one
and a further 10 to get the second one out, and I still had another calliper to
go.
I was concerned that I was going to have to buy a full
refurb kit, pistons, seals, bleed nipples etc. even though I already had seal
kits for both callipers and wasn’t relishing having to spend a further £75 having
already spent £35 on seals. Facebook to the rescue when someone on the Tiger
group suggested a trader called Olax32 and four new pistons were ordered at £39
for the four. At least that kept the spend down.
Less than a week later and both callipers had been rebuilt,
the most difficult and frustrating part being fitting new dust seals, but it
was done. With the aid of a vacuum bleed kit another 20 minutes was taken to
bleed the brakes properly. All the while, oil was steadily dripping into an old
washing up bowl so I could change the oil, an easy job which I’m sure you don’t
need to know the details of.
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