Sandbag

Fixxed I took the front wheel back off, pulled the pads, & pumped the MC & the pistons one at a time extended. I then pushed the pistons back in one at a time & set the pads back in. Pumped the MC & I suddenly had full lever :icon_think: . After reassembling the front end I still had full lever. Checked the MC & it was 3/4 low. Filled it back up & I'm back in business. I'm not sure where the bubble was or how it came out but I'm back in business.

Mine is an 02 & yes we are talking about the same outer bleeder. I have tried the old school pump & crack but I get very little fluid to flow. I did notice that when I took the MC off, after I put it back together I put my finger over the output & on the first pump there was significant pressure, on the next pump just slight pressure. I'm starting to wonder if there is a tiny tear or defect in one of the seals allowing fluid to slip by.

Sandbag, it sounds like you actually lost your front brakes by pushing in the pistons to accomodate the new front pads before doing any bleeding. Did they not pump up any at all after the pad install, or were they just soft? Did you check for fluid loss at the front calipers? If the piston bores were very dirty or corroded, you may be getting air in there as you try to pull fluid with your Mityvac. Do you pull clean fluid from the outter bleeders, or is the fluid foamy with air bubbles? Can you get any pressure at all from the brake lever? If you pump the brake lever 5-10 times, then while holding it down, crack a bleeder, does fluid come out the bleeder? If fluid comes out very fast, you probably still have an air bubble in the system that you are compressing instead of moving pistons against the pads. The T-blocks and the cross-over line would be the only other place besides the caliper piston bores that might collect air. If pumping gets you no pressure, there's always the possibility that pushing the caliper pistons in caused trash to be lodged in the master cylinder piston seals, causing you to not be able to get any pressure from the master cylinder itself. That would require taking the master cylinder apart and at least cleaning it all up, possibly requiring a new seal kit. I haven't had to deal with your situation on a Blackbird, so perhaps someone else who has had similar problems with the front brakes will chime in. I can pump the lever till I'm blue in the face & I can't get any pressure to account for anything. I took the MC apart & it looks fine I didn't see any trash at all. Reassembled went through the entire front bleeding procedure & still nothing. Assuming that the front lever isn't connected to the rear (fluid wise) there is no reason to bleed the rear, correct?

I have bleed my ars off & I'm still not getting proper front with the lever. I had cracked the banjo at the MC (under pressure) & both outer bleeders, used the mighty vac & it still is mush. All I did was install new pads & I had to push the pistons back in too allow the new pads to fit. Then when I went to pump up the front before taking the bike off the lift nothing. I pulled out my mighty vac & accidentally ran the MC dry. That certainly shouldn't have damaged anything to cause this. :icon_wall:

OK so I'm still screwed. Using the rear pedal I have great front breaks, but with the lever I have poor front breaks. After a few hours of reflection I remember that I never saw the front MC fluid drop as I was doing the rear outer (rear) bleeder. It would only pull from the rear MC if I pumped the rear pedal. Why can't I get the line from the front to the rear to bleed properly?

2 pints of dot 4 later I finally got all the air out of the lines. What a PITA. Thanks to all who gave constructive help.

That's what I was looking for, I will try it this evening when I get home. Thanks for the info.

Need a little help, I put on new front pads today & after I had everything together I went to pump up the brakes & they were mush. So I pulled out the might vac & after about 30 minutes I came to the conclusion that me bleeders were clogged. After removing each one blowing them out with the air hose I was able to bleed the 2 front calipers but the rear will not bleed. The bleeder is not clogged & I even tried without the bleeder in & nothing. I have bleed the brakes before with no problems. Any ideas what may be the issue?

I will not disagree!

It was the chain!

I did try turning the rear wheel on the center stand & I could not get it to make any unusual noise. Also tried it running on the center stand no unusual noise. It only made the noise under load. It sounded like 1 bad link & a guy following me said he could see the chain "jumping". I just finished putting on the new chain. I have a thunder storm outside so I may have to wait till tomarrow to see if the noise is gone. I did rid ethe lenth of my basement 40' & no noise . Thanks for the tips guys!

I will check that, The first chain I ordered ended up back ordered. New chain in hand picking up the breaker/press tomarow. I wouldn't think that the bearing would be bad with 16,000 miles but I will check. I HOPE to be heading on a 5,000 mile ride out to CO & back in a week & a half.

To be honest I have 3 bike & have never had any chain issues other then stretching to the point that I replaced it. I bought a can of the dupont teflon spray & have had chain issues on all 3 bikes. 2 frozen links & now this. I'm not going to say that the teflon caused the problem, it's just odd within 1,000 miles of using it all 3 started having issues.

Ok I'll try to describe this as good as I can. I have a 02 XX with 16,000 on it, 12,000 of those were in the past 11 months. I have used honda chain wax on the chain since I bought the bike last june. The chain appears to have a bad link or somthing of that nature although I can't see, feal or find any problem with the chain. There is a noise coming from the area of the front sproket that sounds like a frozen link. But I don't see a frozen link. It is loud at slower speeds especially under load. I can also feel it in the left foot peg. It has gotten progressivly worse. I have pulled the front sprocket cover & the sprocket looks perfect. No noticable where at all. Both sprockets appear to be tight & have no signs of wear. I have ordered a new chain & sprocket set. But if anyone has any ideas I open for your thoughts.

Even after his passing he is still helping. This worked great! Timmmmaaaaay!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glad to see ya poppin' in man! Can I break out the infamous potato gun/beard burning incident video now??? Go for it