Replaced brake rod, now need to bleed - any ideas why?

[rich46]

2022 Spyder F 3
I just replaced the brake rod to allow moving my foot position from #3 to #4. Now it takes two pumps on the pedal to get good feeling pedal. Any idea why that happened ? I am getting ready to bleed the brakes but WTF never expected this to cause a need for bleeding.

Rich

[Peteoz]

I don’t know enough about brakes to help with possible causes, but I have never experienced (or heard of) this in 6 years after changing a brake rod, Rich. After all, you are simply moving the sealed unit a couple of inches. Hopefully someone knowledgeable will be along shortly

Pete

[rich46]

Yea that's my thinking and why I posted what happened. I'm not that bad a mechanic and ao it left me in a quandary

[Isopedella]

I got nothing. When I swapped out the brake rod on my 2017 F3 I moved the pedal. The slave cyl remained in place and didn't move at all. Must have changed them I guess.

I guess I would check the level in the reservoir and bleed the system. Then monitor it.

[Mikey]

So, what you're saying is when you are coming to a stop, and you put your foot on the brake and push you have to do it twice to get a good firm peddle?

[rich46]

Yes that's exactly what happens. I've been a wrench my whole life and it's got me wondering if I'm suffering from some kind of brain cloud and can't see what the cause is. LOL I moved a foot peg and added a longer rod and now I need to bleed the brakes..............................as I said before WTF.

[Vincef329]

So Rich, you disconnected the rear of the rod then then the front - which is really the only way you can do it right? Then reverse with the new rod... So here's a guess = when you attached the new rod, it got pulled and introduced air, so it follows that bleeding is the fix.
Keep posted and safe travels!

[hut1]

Interesting. I changed my brake rod three times and never experienced this issue. Are you using an OEM rod or Lamonster after market rod? Pegs or floor boards?

[rich46]

OEM rod and floor boards. It's been 123 * F ( real hot spell in N California) in my shop so I've put off messing about with the motorbike but think that the suggestion that i might have given the master-cylinder a tug when installing the rod has me think that this may be my cause. As soon as it cools down I'll give the system a bleed and see how that works. Not the floorboards there is no clearance issue at all and nothing rubbing.

Thanks for the input it all helped as I was at a loss as to what went amiss.

[Isopedella]

I reckon you may be right to may have given the rod a tug on install, and that has caused your problem.

I dont think it matters what bar you fitted. Its just a rod with fittings on the end.

I made my own. Not really a good welder but managed to get it to stick. haha

bar 2 1 20220524_084136.jpg bar 1 2 20220524_084110.jpg

Please let us know how you got on.

[rich46]

As I started the thread I think it is important to be the one to come clean when it was my mistake that was at the heart of the problem.

I had not only been installing the longer "BRAKE ROD" I was also mounting the extra brake light system. I include this in my confession because to make the install of the lights cleaner I removed the wheels (I mean how hard can R & Ring wheels be ?) so I could get to the wire run easier.

As I reassembled the bike I checked in the Giant Workshop Manual from CanAm and made sure all my torque's were correct. I even went so far as to check the wheel torque. Here is where I fell short. I must have misread the value and only torqued the wheels to 48 '#'s. The actual torque is +- 80. I put the whole wrenched mess back together and found the brake peddle required a few strokes to get a hard peddle. After getting in-put from all of you I went back and checked all the assemblies and decided to take a quick ride to check my work. Low and behold the brakes still were bad and I also had a wee shake in the steering.

So here is where I admit to being over confident because of all my years as a mechanic. I pass this along because I've learned that most often we learn more from mistakes than any-other way. The clue was in the front end shake ! I took the bike back to the shop re-checked everything, pulled the wheels and looked over the light install and reassembled the front. When I looked up wheel torque I re-checked the torque wrench and it was way off (almost by half) I had mis-read the number somehow. I tightened the nuts to spec and header out to check for a front end shimmy.......................GONE ! Not only was the shaking gone but I now had full peddle and good brakes.

I thank everyone who helped with advise and I pass along my foolish error in the hope that it may guide someone else to avoid the same kind of stupid error. I always double check everything and all things that get torques. The torque spec that I first used did not seem to be unreasonable and in many cases it wasn't but unreasonable or not it was WRONG. This was a reminder that reading the book and double checking my work is at the top of the doing it right list. I pass it along because thought I knew what I was doing and didn't.

Cheers

[Isopedella]

Ha. You are aware your the first Bloke ever to not quite get something correct 100% of the time when wrenching.

Thanks for reporting back.

[Peteoz]

Thanks Rich……yeah, we have all done something similar…….except ME, of course ….. thanks for letting us know.

Pete

[rich46]

Thought I'd mention my misstep if no other reason other than that's a lot of torque for a wheel stud so when I first thought it through I rejected that as a possibility. Would be an easy mistake to make so Passing it on seemed like the right thing to do. I can stand to admit to one error in my life