Article [13] ST1300 - Brake Maintenance - Avoiding the Pitfalls

Very nice and detailed article John. I printed this off and kept a copy in my ST notebook last year and have used it to solve my brake problems and helped another.
 
How does one separate the left-hand front caliper from the SMC bracket sub-assembly without opening the hydraulic system? The brake hose is not long enough to allow me to separate the two so I can clean and lubricate the slider pins.
 
Cleaning and lubing all of the moving parts is part of my routine every time I touch brakes even if the calipers move freely. My right front pads are worn significantly more than the left. They are worn very evenly, just much more than the left side. I have always noticed that the right front rotor is considerably hotter then the other two even though the calipers and pistons move very freely and there is no significant drag when I spin the wheel. I disassembled everything and found nothing to explain the increased wear on the right side. Since everything was apart I cleaned and re-lubed all of the moving parts- except the left front pins because I could not move the caliper enough to free it from the bracket. Just thought that I would ask in case there was something I was missing.

Thanks.
 
2009. I had a look at all of the clips while I was disassembling- all was well. I changed all of the brake pads all around and found nothing abnormal while doing so. Will have to see how the new set wears.
 
Very good how-to info. You should write a whole new manual for ST-1300. Honda manual does not go into this detail and very vague and confusing many times. Thank you for sharing!!!
 
John: this is really well done. I've written a fair number of technical procedure manuals and it isn't easy to be as clear and straight-forward as you have been in your document. Well done. As a matter of interest - are there any other write-ups in your club's archives which might benefit other ST Owners?

Cheers,

Pete
 
jfheath said:
Thanks for that Pete. A nice comment to receive. I resurrected the club magazine about 3 years ago, knowing that I had a number of different types of document that I could use to keep it going for a while should I get no contributions from other people. They were written primarily for me - I'm of an age where I can do something to the bike and then a few years down the line I will find myself solving the same problem, hitting the same snags and at the end of it all realising that I had been through the same process before. I started taking photos of things as I did them, and some of them I wrote up - and this process helped the information to be stored away more permanently in my memory.

We decided to remove them from the club mag as they were written as 'how-to' instructions for me. But they read as though I am saying that this is the way to do it, and as the club mag ended up on the internet, perhaps this was not the wisest thing to have out there. I still have them somewhere, but I haven't looked at them for a while. I'll see what I have got. I know I did one on changing bearings (with a video that is on here somewhere), adjusting the valve clearances, and building a fused and relayed accessory wiring harness. There were a few others. I'll find out - I would like to get them all together rather than have them scattered around.

I wrote the 'avoiding the pitfalls' article after all of this, and it was done deliberately in a style which reflects my personal experience and the gotchas that I have come across that didn't seem to be documented in any single place that I could find. I've tried to make it obvious that I am not a trained mechanic advising on the best way to do something - but someone who followed instruction in the Honda manual and still hit problems.

Having said that, one member of the club had his bike in the garage with sticky rear brake problems. Whatever he did, the rear brake kept sticking. The mechanic couldn't fathom out what was going on, and got him mobile again for a club weekend by clamping off one of the rear brake hoses. When he told me, I said instantly that it sounded like his SMC needed a good service. I sent him a copy of the 'avoiding the pitfalls' which he gave to the mechanic. It all seemed to have been a revelation to him.

I think the other articles would need to be revised to adopt the same style - and of course some people have covered the same topics as me and posted them on this forum, and they are much better than my efforts.
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You are most welcome - and I do understand about trying to strike the right tone on these things. As for your buddy and his clamped off hose issue - yup, the brake systems on these bikes is pretty complex and certain a step beyond the norm for motorcycles. I'm not surprised that even a professional mechanic wasn't familiar with the nuances of the system. It took me a fair bit of staring at it to understand the SMC and its implications....and hydraulics are sort of my thing.

Anyhow, I would certainly be keen to read anything further you might have along the lines of the "Avoiding the Pitfalls..." document.

Pete
 
And if anyone knows how to stop the system from timing me out before I have finished writing and placing pictures, that would be a great help.

Hello mate - great thread.
Prepare everything offline in Word or similar.
Once you are happy with what you have just copy and [aste everything into a post.
Should work fine.
Cheers - Steve
 
John: These are all superb topics for the forum. I might suggest a PM to our Moderator - Mellow (Joe Norris) and see if he can advise / turn them into articles for the service threads on the applicable bikes. I am coiling up to change my ST1300 clutch slave cylinder (NOT using the Honda method which requires removal of the engine from the frame) - and that is what I am going to do with Joe's assistance.

Frankly, I am interested in all of the listed articles - so good on you for digging them up.

Pete
 
John, thank you for this valuable resource. You give some advice that is different from the Factory Service Manual. On page 7 of your pdf you say to loosely fit the stopper bolt, torque the axle nut, then torque the stopper bolt. The FSM says to torque the axle first, then the stopper bolt.

Could you clarify this?
 
jfheath said:
Thanks for the comment, and well spotted.

Can I first of all say that this article - 'Avoiding the Pitfalls' - isn't intended to give advice, nor is it a definitive guide. It is a record of what I do when I service my own bike that others might be interested in. On the very front page I make this very clear and state:


Please take the precaution of using your own skill and judgement and the official workshop manual for your information if you decide to work on your own brakes.​

So thank you for checking this out with the service manual. You are quite correct. The service manual states that the stopper bolt should be tightened first - and this is the way that it should be done.

The way that I describe in this personal record is done to suit the way that I work. - eg I like to check that there is no binding between the stopper bolt and the brake calliper created as a result of tightening the rear axle (which may attempt to rotate the caliper bracket clockwise). With the stopper bolt in place but not fully torqued I can check for this.

But you would be right to follow the procedure in the manual - as indicated on the very first page.
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Regarding the Shop Manual, I stopped by my local Honda dealer today to order one and the parts guy was a little confused which part number was correct. 61MCS04 or 61MCS14. My ST is a 2007, but I remembered reading somewhere in a post on this site that an earlier version had some mistakes that were corrected in a later edition. Would I be correct to conclude the 61MCS14 one is the most accurate and best one to get?
 
The reason I listed the 61MCS04 and the 61MCS14 numbers was those are the two that come up on the Helm Inc website when searching for the ST1300 Service Manual. So I suppose the 14 edition is with all the updates since that was the last year the ST was manufactured. See http://www.helminc.com/helm/homepage.asp?Style=helm

Thanks for the link to CYYJ's post!
 
jfheath said:
Mine is an early version 61MCS00 and an addendum to that 61MCS00Z

I did some searching around and cannot find anything on line that distinguishes between the two.

I found an online handbook - the one that comes with the bike - for models in the states. It has extra section that aren't printed in mine. One of these is headed 'consumer information' and it gives the number of the workshop manual. This particular one said 61MCS04 - but goodness knows which model that came with.

There were quite a few significant changes to the ST1300 in 2008, but having said that i am still using my 02 - 04 workshop manual on my 2013 built A9 having used it previously on my A6. We didnt have a 2007 model in the Uk.

Yes there are a few errors in mine - odd torque settings, bearing information, bleeding sequence changed later on, left and right confused - stuff like that. But with a bit of common sense, they can be spotted. As with all things, don't dollow information blindly - especially if it doesn't seem to make sense.

I'd be tempted to start a new thread for this question - it might get replies from more people.

Edit

Aha - someone has just replied to a different thread that i started. Coincidentally, it gives the answer to your question. It seems 14 may be a leter revision - read through all of the posts.

https://www.st-owners.com/forums/th...corrections-to-st-1300-service-manual.142568/
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Thanks! That helped explain it. I just ordered the 61MCS14 edition from Helm. $64.95 plus $6.00 handling for standard shipping.
 
Jeff, you or Joe needs to update the title of this article. It contains links to so much more than just brakes. The more I think of it, you need to start another overall general use article and add post#41 to it only. That way it would be at the top and easily accessible. Your work is invaluable here and this way many more people would find it I think.
 
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