Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech Replacing front disk rotor on 2007 (w/pics)

OK, it seemed there was a little interest in me posting how I replaced the front disk rotor on my 2007 TBA.

I'm going to include some instructions from the Haynes Manual. I will try to remember to use italics for them. For some reason, I don't have the chapter (pdf file), from the Triumph Service manual, on how to do it.

Anyway, I use a Harbor Freight bike lift. I got her up good and high, so I don't have to bend over as much (getting old sucks).



Just to be on the safe side, I ran straps over where the seat goes and over the engine. Since I pulled the seat and had time, I also went ahead and cleaned & oiled my air filter.




Removed the front brake caliper. I used a zip tie to support it off my engine bars. I put a couple of wooden paint stirrer sticks in between the calipers, to help hold them apart. This was a suggestion, that I saw here somewhere years ago, and it's a great idea.







Undo the Speedometer cable screw...




And draw the cable off the drive housing, noting how it engages.




Now this threw me, when I disconnected it, as I didn't see what the deal was with noting how it engages.

However, I would recommend that you tie it off, facing upward. Initially, I just left it hanging loose. Subsequently, the little drive shaft slide out. It wasn't a huge deal, I just slid it back in and then zip tied it pointing upwards. But still, something to watch out for.

Unscrew the bolt from the right hand end of the axle

Sorry no pics of this, but it does require a 12 mm Allen wrench, which I didn't have, so had to make a quick run over to Harbor Freight. There's also a small plastic cover on the left hand side which just pops off.

Slacken the axle clamp bolts on the bottom of each fork.

OK, straightforward.

Support the front wheel, then withdraw the axle from the left hand side and remove the wheel. Use a drift to drive out the axle, if required, making sure you don't damage the threads.

Again, no pictures, but it was fairly straightforward. A few gentle taps with a rubber mallet and everything was apart. This was when the speedometer cable drive shaft slid out.

Remove the spacer from the right hand side of the wheel and the speedometer drive housing from the left hand side.

Again, sorry no pics. Be sure to note how the spacer fits back on the wheel. You want the "dirty" end to fit in the wheel.

I didn't mess around with the axle or wheel bearings, as per the Haynes Manual.

My bike without the front wheel.




I used the back of my truck to hold the wheel, while working.

This is it came off. I admit, I'm guilty of not checking the wear on my brake pads. I thought I checked them earlier this year. But I wasn't as careful as I thought. And the brakes always seemed to work well, until i noticed some "pulling". It won't happen again. Those sintered metal pads really do a number on the wheel. I'm probably going to pull them off the rear brakes as well.



Anyway, removing the disk bolts was pretty straightforward with the heat gun softening up the Loctite Blue on the threads.



Someone had mentioned an impact wrench, on my thread when I was asking about all this, and even posted a youtube video. I went down and rummaged through my Dad's tools, that i inherited, and found an old, well used one. Worked like a charm !!




Just whack it good with a hammer.





Got the old disk off and cleaned up the seating area and wire brushed the disk bolts. ON my other thread, it seemed there was no consensus on replacing the disk bolts. I did go to Tacoma Screw, but they didn't have that type of screw (they suggested a washer? Hell no!). So I re-used the the disk bolts. At this point, I'm not sure where to source them, other than the dealer.

I also used some brake cleaner to clean up the new disk (standard EBC disk I got on eBay).




Mounted the new rotor. Used Blue Loctite on each disk bolt and reinstalled them (criss-cross) and torqued them to 22Nm.




Put the spacer and speedo drive shaft back on and slid the srive axle back in to hold the wheel. Tightened down the axle bolt to 60 Nm and the front axle clamping bolts to 20 Nm. Be careful to ensure the speedo drive housing buts up against the stop on the left fork.

Needless to say, my old front pads were kind of shot...



I replaced them with some EBC Kevlar (organic) pads that i got from the same place I bought the rotor disk from. Yes, these new pads won't last as long, but I don't believe they will chew into the rotor like the sintered metal pads did. And don't mind forking out a little money to change them every Spring or Fall. I reinstalled the caliper and tightened the caliper mounting bolts to 28 Nm.

The speedometer cable was also re-attached with no problem.

I hope this helps others wondering how to do this. It's actually pretty straightforward. It helps to have an extra pair of hands when pulling the wheel off and mounting it back on. My oldest son gave me a hand there.

I took her out for a spin a little while later and everything seems good. I noticed some "pulsing" in the brakes, especially at very low speed. But I did see on the packaging EBC mentions a break-in period. I've put some more miles on since then and the "pulsing" is not as noticeable. So, I'm assuming the pads are fitting in.

I don't know what the dealer would have charged for all this. I'm guessing close to US$400-500 at least ? The disk cost me about $125 and the new pads were about $24. I had to buy a heat gun and some additional metric allen wrenches. But they will get used.

Thanks to all, on my other thread about this.

Steve

The damage to your rotor looks to be more from steel on steel as the sintered material appears to have left town, awhile back. Was the side of the replaced rotor that still enjoyed some pad material, gouged that bad too?

Did you use some high temp anti-seize on the caliper pins to make sure it slides freely so both pads wear evenly.

Good pics.

Steel on steel shoulda been pretty noisy...

Which replacement rotor did you use?

When was the brake fluid last replaced?

These days, when most people think of "impact wrench", the visual is an air or electric wrench, not cave-man style...

The old school hammer impacts are the way to go with tight allen fasteners. Less chance of buggering the cosmetic aspect of the bolt face or rounding/stripping the hole.

Please note that removing the speedo cable is not what this wording

Quote:

---

noting how it engages.

---

was referring to.

LEAVE the cable connected! Pay attention instead, to how the drive housing engages those two tabs when you place the drive housing back in place.

You had to notice how the drive housing sorta fell out of place and onto the floor, then rolled right under the water heater once you had the wheel removed, or rather while you were removing it. Leaving the cable connected, the drive housing hangs freely, attached to the speedo cable.

Great write up!