Rear brake lever hanging up

Yesterday on the road I noticed that when I use the rear brake, the pedal doesn't fully release. I can pull it back up with the toe of my boot. Not sure if this happens at speed, I only noticed it in a gas station parking lot and a Starbucks.

My first guess is that the caliper, or a piston in it, is binding. But since I'm on a road trip, I don't have an easy way to check this.

Thoughts/suggestions?

(this is an 08, 57k mi and I believe that the fluids were all changed recently)

Pat L said:

Yesterday on the road I noticed that when I use the rear brake, the pedal doesn't fully release. I can pull it back up with the toe of my boot. Not sure if this happens at speed, I only noticed it in a gas station parking lot and a Starbucks.

My first guess is that the caliper, or a piston in it, is binding. But since I'm on a road trip, I don't have an easy way to check this.

Thoughts/suggestions?

(this is an 08, 57k mi and I believe that the fluids were all changed recently)

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Brake lever pivot is gummed up. Common issue with all FJRs. Clean and lube and you should be good to go.

Pat L said:

.. the rear brake, the pedal doesn't fully release...Thoughts/suggestions?...

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Yes. The pivot for the foot lever is dirty, needs cleaning and a lube job. It isn't difficult but it will be a fiddling job while on the road. Score yourself a small can of WD40, use the supplied straw and hose the pivot while working the lever. This will free it up and let you continue your trip.

When you get home you will need to pull the lever off clean everything, do a lube and reinstall. You need to get to the back side of the pivot and the only way to do this is to take the whole thing off. This is a common issue and it happens to the shift lever too. It is amazing how notchy shifting goes away and neutral becomes easy to find again.

Like he said. Very common and is generaly never done at the dealer. Get a little can of WD40 and lube it up and when you get home take it apart and lube it properly after a good cleaning.

I think the next time on mine I am installing a grease fitting.

ionbeam types faster the I do.

A good resource on lubing the pivot points, including the rear brake pedal pivot point:

https://www.fjrtech.com/getdbitem.cfm?item=15

Thanks!!! The members of this forum rock :clapping:

Much relieved. Will try to clean today as a short term help.

The other thing that will hang up the rear brake on the FJR is over tightening the drag link bolt. Offering this if you recently changed the rear tire.

The pedal pivot may have deserved a bearing or something -- maybe a zerk fitting so one could give it a routine shot of new grease to flush out crud. Maybe one could drill and tap the pedal pivot and install a zerk?

Constant Mesh said:

The pedal pivot may have deserved a bearing or something -- maybe a zerk fitting so one could give it a routine shot of new grease to flush out crud. Maybe one could drill and tap the pedal pivot and install a zerk?

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Holy dog pile Batman! The same thing happened to me a week ago and I found myself struggling to do a search for the solution on this forum from the postage stamp size display on my Blackberry on the shoulder of the road rather than risk having my balls verbally severed by Bustanut for starting a new thread on an old problem. :blink:

MajBach said:

Constant Mesh said:

The pedal pivot may have deserved a bearing or something -- maybe a zerk fitting so one could give it a routine shot of new grease to flush out crud. Maybe one could drill and tap the pedal pivot and install a zerk?

Click to expand...

Holy dog pile Batman! The same thing happened to me a week ago and I found myself struggling to do a search for the solution on this forum from the postage stamp size display on my Blackberry on the shoulder of the road rather than risk having my balls verbally severed by Bustanut for starting a new thread on an old problem. :blink:

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Ha! I searched for 'rear brake' and did t find anything, so I figured it was clear to post. Very thankful for helpful responses.

One of our Aussie members had a sticking brake lever.



His story here

Queensland Ken said:

One of our Aussie members had a sticking brake lever.

His story here

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My guess is that both brake pads ended up together on one side of the rotor, leaving the piston rubbing one side of the disk and the back side of a pad rubbing the other side of the disk. It is easy to get both pads together if you aren't paying attention.

I just cleaned and lubed the shift linkage and the rear brake pedal, the rear was not sticking but it was bone dry, I used waterproof grease and it should be good till next year. :yahoo:

I noticed this identical issue when I was chasing Bluestreek down some twisty coast roads to a lighthouse in NorCal last week. For one bad moment I thought my rear brake had gone away altogether as the pedal was not where my toe expected it to be.

Using the diagrams in this thread I tore this apart in my garage in 100 degree heat yesterday, polished up the rough/corroded spots, greased the hell out of everything that moves (or is supposed to move) and all is good again! I will make this part of my annual Fall service before the bike goes down for its snow nap.

1 '03, 2 '04's and 300+ miles and I've polished, lubed with numerous types of lube,increraased the spring tension and the rear brake lever will still stick after several thousand miles of riding back roads of Western NC & East TN. I carry a can of penetrating lube or "Liquid Wrench." Got frustrated being in the middle of a ride and losing rear brake !! I believe it is a design flaw..I'm no engineer but I've ridden abuich of bikes a bunch of miles (close to a million) and never had another bike with same problem.

Pat L said:

Thanks!!! The members of this forum rock :clapping:

Much relieved. Will try to clean today as a short term help.

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Pat, I have some very good moly based waterproof marine grease that you are welcome to use during the teech meet (or sooner if I am home you can stop by or call).

gazelle said:

1 '03, 2 '04's and 300+ miles and I've polished, lubed with numerous types of lube,increraased the spring tension and the rear brake lever will still stick after several thousand miles of riding back roads of Western NC & East TN. I carry a can of penetrating lube or "Liquid Wrench." Got frustrated being in the middle of a ride and losing rear brake !! I believe it is a design flaw..I'm no engineer but I've ridden abuich of bikes a bunch of miles (close to a million) and never had another bike with same problem.

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Design flaw?? :rofl:

Good Gawd I think I ruptured a testicle!!! :w00t:

On a regular basis, i.e. daily, after coming to a stop, I'll stick my toe under the brake pedal and see if I can pull it up, just in case it's sticking. It's a quick check to make sure the "design flaw" isn't rearing its ugly head.

Last time I did this and discovered that yes, the pedal wasn't returning completely, was about 27,000 miles ago, during the Frankenbike Rebuild. Took the assembly apart, cleaned it up thoroughly and was preparing to re-assemble. Couldn't find my tub of moly paste. Couldn't find my tube of lithium grease. I was about to reach for some Crisco to slather that sucker down when the ol' lady hollered at me to get in the house and fix that damn leaky cold water faucet on her bathtub.

Put down my tools, cleaned up and grabbed my inside tools. Took that sucker apart, found a torn O-ring and headed down to the Mom & Pop hardware store for a new set of O-rings.

While I was there, the guy helping me at the store reminded me to get some plumber's grease and load both assemblies up real good.



While re-assembling the faucets, I couldn't help but notice both of them were already packed full of grease and didn't really need more, but I shoved some in there anyway.

Finished inside, I went back out to the Feej to finish putting the FJR's rear brake assy back together. STILL couldn't find my "Garage Grease" so I put a thimbleful of the plumber's grease all over the brake pivot and the inside of the brake arm.

3 years later, that waterproof, high temp crap I got from the hardware store, designed for keeping faucets working smooth, is still all over the pivot and brake arm, doing its job. Thinking about the faucet rebuild, those original faucets, with water flowing through them on a daily basis, had plenty of grease still in the housing.....in 20 year old faucets!

Moral of the story??

Don't let yer damn kids in the garage where they can take stuff and never return it, like your your $20 tube of Honda Moly 60....which may work great on drive splines, but doesn't work nearly as well as the snot that comes out of a $2 tube of shit that came from a 1940's era hardware store.

Design flaw?

Sheayeah!!! :glare:

RadioHowie said:

...

fix that damn leaky cold water faucet on her bathtub.

...

finish putting the FJR's rear brake assy back together. STILL couldn't find my "Garage Grease" so I put a thimbleful of the plumber's grease all over the brake pivot and the inside of the brake arm.

...

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Curiously, I went the other way. Had a leaking tap (as we call faucets this side of the pond). When I reassembled it, I used Castrol LM. Has been working for three years so far.

And, for the Gen II people, don't forget your ABS light flashing is a clue to a sticking rear brake lever, and for you YCC-S riders, the SH__47 code. Been there, done that.