Okay, so I decided to replace the brake fluid and the front brake pads as they were in pretty bad shape. Cool project, nothing major but enough to make me feel manly and competent. Unfortunately for me some of both the sliding pins and the securing bolts that are supposed to be on top of them were rusted shut due to negligence by all the previous owners. After three days of labour and several hundred bucks in new tools I gave up and rolled the bike to a car mechanic beside my garage. He pried the calipers from bike and drilled them opened. In the meanwhile I ordered replacement parts from England due to them not being found in Sweden at all.

You're still with me? Good. Today I had the time to install everything. The parts had come and I felt strong and competent after having bled the brakes of another bike. Well, I soon ran into problems. When drilling out the bolts and making new threads the mechanic kinda failed. I was not able to put the pins all the way into the calipers but fortunately for me the replacement ones were somewhat longer than my original ones which meant that they went half way into the calipers on the other side. I decided to take a chance by putting them as far in as possible and securing them with LocTite.

Now it was time for the grand final: Refilling the brake fluid. When the car mechanic tore my stuff away he bled the entire system which meant that there were not a single drop of fluid left in the system. Not even in the calipers. Now for the fun part... I don't seem to be able fill up the system. I've tried every technique I think, turning the bleed valves in and out while pumping but no fluid enters the system. Tubes are attached to the valves and submerged in containers (both calipers at the same time) with enough DOT4 to keep the end from ever reaching air. I can see the springlike thing moving in the bottom of the brake reservoir while pumping the lever but no fluid seems to be entering the system as was the case when I bled the brakes on my friend's bike.

Do any of you, disciples of the Honda CBR 600 F2, have any advice for a lost soul? Text would be good, pictures even better and a video would give you a gold star and at least a couple of free beers in Sweden.

Thanks for reading this wall of text.

EDIT: Feel free to move this to Tech. I forgot where I was when I posted it.

 

Have you tried filling your resevoir, opening the bleeders all the way and letting it sit for awhile? When I replace lines I "gravity" bleed them to make it easier on me...

 

What gtcole said. And are you talking the pad retaining pins? If they are too long, can you shorten them?

These brakes are VERY picky to get bled properly. Took me 3 times to get all the air out.

 

Gtcole: I've tried it for like an hour but then I got impatient. Maybe I should wait longer...

CorruptFile: actually the longer pad retaining pins (yes, I meant those) are what saved me since the mechanic destroyed the threads which means I can't get them in as far.

Today I'll try pushing in the fluid through the nipples with the syringe method. And if that doesn't work, just wait some more. Thanks guys.

 

Ok, how are your hoses? The seal on your master cylinder leaking? A quick check, crack the banjo bolt at the master cylinder and squeeze. If fluid comes out when you apply the brakes, I'd tighten it back, them loosen the banjo at the calipers and repeat. This should let you knowif there is an issue with master cylinder or hoses. If fluid is getting to the calipers, then there may be a blockage in the calipers. I doubt that is the issue though. I would lean more to a hose.

Also, it sometimes takes awhile to get fluid to the calipers when gravity bleeding. Leaving the resevoir cap off helps.

 

I think I fixed it! I connected a syringe from a kit for fork oil replacement to the bleeder nipple on one side and pushed fluid through that way while keeping the reservoir cap open so that the trapped air could escape that way. Took me a couple of attempts to get everything to seal correctly but after a while it seemed to work. When I had pushed fluid into the system I bled it the traditional way and that seemed to do the trick. Haven't really tried if worked because I still have to replace the fuel hose from the petcock (the main reason for tearing everything apart, it kind of just escalated from there) but now the calipers seem to move and the lever doesn't go all the way in but rather stays out like it did before the complete draining of the system.

Tomorrow I'll put her back together and take her for a SLOW ride to try the brakes.
Thanks for all the input!

 

So I took her for a short, short ride and everything seems to be in order except for a knocking which probably is a CCT-thing (I'll replace it soon enough) and that the engine felt somewhat hotter than usual (did change the coolant and this was the first time I've started her since). The brakes felt fine but the rotors felt warmer. I suspect that the new and thicker pads are touching the rotors but not that much. How do I know how much they are supposed to touch, if at all? Are they supposed to be like that to settle in after a few miles?

 

When replacing the coolant, you need to start the bike and let it run a few minutes without the rad cap on. Air will be in the system and that needs to bleed out. If air gets stuck in there the engine will run really hot.

A bad CCT will sound like like a diesel, and be really loud. You can't miss the sound. Shouldn't knock though. I'd say that it sounds more like clattering.

Glad you got the brakes sorted out. Can be a pain.

 

Thanks for the advice. Did not know about the radiator so I'll fix that tonight. Have I ruined anything by taking the bike for some 20 miles low speed today?

 

That depends on what that "knocking" sound is - like Mike said, the cct is more of a clattering sound, or rattling, kind of like some nails rattling around in an otherwise empty tin can.
If your cct is just a little out of adjustment, you'll have the un-nerving noise, and a bit of a performance hit, but it just depends on how bad it is... if you know cct is the source of the noise, you should definitely replace it as soon as you can (if it's OEM hydraulic), or adjust it (if it's manual).