Brake pad change problem - 1985 rebel.

[miscusi]

If you have read my old posts, you will know I said that every 3 days something new comes up... well, today is another 3rd day.

So I decided to change the brake pads since I replaced the dented disk rotor at the shop.

I read the clymers and it seems easy enough, take off the caps, loosen the bolts, remove the thing from the fork, open the master cylinder, press pads apart for new pads, place them in and reverse and tighten..

So, looking at the caps, they seem to be allen wrench type, so I put in an allen wrench and turned. The damn cap just flexed and flexed instead of turning. So I turned more and it rounded out the cap hole. Note this is a brake area otherwise I would have WD40ed it.

So I got a flat blade screw driver and stuck that in, and tried to turn, with its effect only resulted in the cap turning into a fine powder with chunks of harder plastic at the edges..

I worked and worked and I saw the bolt beneath, and with that cap crud all over the inside of the ?threads? if it is held on by threads....

Now I find myself doing a mini-archeaological dig to clean up the cap with very small tools...

U know what, I dont blame that dealershop anymore for refusing to work on old old bikes, these things just crumble at your fingertips !

[miscusi]

my god, I just spent 2 hours trying to get that cap off, with only minor results...

Anyone got a good idea of how to get those out easier ? wow, like, it is taking forever....
:)

[jeff schenkel]

it has been a couple of years but from memory i had the same type of problem with my 85 250.

those things are just plastic caps. they don't wrench off if they are old -- popping them off, if i remember, is what i ended up doing.

you could pick up a couple of new ones if you want -- they are really just dust covers for the real bolts underneath.

[miscusi]

Thanks jeff... I appreciate all of you who are here to help.

So maybe I could be of help to someone who may read this,

That cap, is 21 years old and rotted. To get it out I had to pry, dig, pull, used a big drill bit and my hand, and basically hollowed it out and pryed it free from the treads.

Doing so I kinda roughed up the treads a bit, maybe when I turn the real bolts, the treads will go back into shape, if it dont I'll run a die/tap (whichever one is for this) through it once or twice.

here is a pic of what remains of one cap. and a diagram showing the cap and where it belongs.

Thank you all for helping with this and many other newbie questions I have posted.

http://www.clients.dannyleephoto.com/cap.jpg

[miscusi]

Today I went to change the pads themselves, and look at these PADS !

http://www.clients.dannyleephoto.com/oh****.jpg

[miscusi]

NEWS: the new bolt covers are made of metal ! .