83 GS1100E Front Master Cylinder Options

[snoobler]

Update:

GS1, stock M/C.

I totally spaced on the zip tie trick. I left GS1 that way overnight. Lever feel firmed way up with no pump-up. Unfortunately, I now had enough fluid pressure to identify other weak points in the system.

PRIOR to the zip tie trick, I could NOT lock up the front wheel with maximum braking effort and the handle to the bar. NOW, I could. The bad new is that this increased fluid pressure means I uncovered leaks in the system.

HARD braking to a stop would cause the manifold bolted to the bottom of the triple tree to burp a significant amount of fluid... onto the fork brace and fender.

Fitting torque was good. I discovered it was coming from the banjo bolt connection. The ONE good thing to come about from the EMGO boondoggle was that I found a banjo bolt and its two seals that I didn't chuck. replaced two of the three seals on the right side, and voila! No more leaks!

Brakes feel about as good as I remember, and I can just lock up the front wheel with three fingers, but not two.

Being kinda excited about the initial results, I did the zip tie trick on GS2... Ummm...



Discovered that after about 15 minutes. A very small drip on the left side too. Well poo.

All of the banjos were just a touch under-torqued. Leaks appear to be gone, but I suspect I need to replace all the crush washers. Next weekend's project!

EX650 M/C is still on the way. GS2 has a cheap Chinesium ebay M/C on it, so it will definitely have a home when it gets here!

Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[snoobler]

In retrospect, that's fork oil, NOT brake fluid. It's kinda that greenish color, and it's caused no paint damage. Plus, I tracked it down to the seam between the fork tube and the anti-dive unit. Getting new o-rings on order...

Dagnabbit... love these old bikes, but there's always something!!!

 

[snoobler]

Had an occasion to make an aggressive ride to Tortilla Flat today on GS1. Lots of curves, hard braking and hard drives out of apexes. Was a little more sane and only dragged the left peg once. The stock M/C after the new crush washers and zip-tied handle overnight was at least 10-20% better than it was before.

Side note - the new Pingel petcock worked out nicely too. I've had too many of the vacuum operated buggers fail, so I bit the bullet and molested my wallet.

ANYWAY...

I did notice after the mid-ride break, that the lever had softened up just a touch, and my paranoia had me "pumping" the handle regularly prior to hard braking, but it really wasn't necessary. I'm pretty happy with it thus far, so I'm likely to leave it unchanged for a bit.

However, GS2's ebay $27 chinese aftermarket "EX650"-like M/C is coming off (very spongy). I got an 18mm version of the Chinese "Brembo" clutch and M/C set that I want to try on that one. If it works out, I'll likely swap that over to GS1 and put the actual EX650 on GS2.

Of course that has to wait until I get the o-rings for between the forks and anti-dive units. Yes. I'm keeping those bastids.

 

[mustangflyr!]

When the time came and the front m/cyl was too pitted to use so I shipped it up to be bored oversize then brass sleeved back to standard. Fixed that for good. Contact whitepost.com, keeps it original that way.