Bonneville America Forums Forums Technical Forums General Tech problem in Rear brake

I have a BA 2004 with 20km on the clock. I noticed an intermittent Klunk when I apply the rear brake and as the bike is still under warrenty I had it checked out. The service department replaced the rear brake assembly plate that holds the brake assembly. This seemed to fix the problem until recently when I noticed the Klunk had returned. Has anybody had similar problems and if so what is the fix please.

Welcome to the club.

Take note of when the noise happens. If you've been parked uphill with the weight of the bike resting on the rear brake, the next time you use your rear brake to slow down it'll "klunk". That's a normal noise.

I did the same thing - took it in under warranty and had them "fix" it, only to have it reappear a few days later and be told not to worry. 40,000km later it's still there and hasn't gotten any worse.

There's 2 fixes.
Glue a piece of rubber in there to absorb the metal to metal clunk.
Or, Ignore it.

Hmm glued piece of rubber... I hadn't thought of that. It'd work too. On the other hand ignoring it takes less effort, think I'll go on doing that.

Thanks for the tips I will try your suggestions and advise of outcomes

Thanks for the comments. I notice your from the sunshine state do you have a BA or SM ? Have you done any modifications to the performance of the bike. Mine is still stock standard apart from Triumph pipes. Also how meny KM do you get per tank of fuel.
Best Regards

Guys,

Can't seem to tell you how happy I'm not alone with this problem. My 05 TBA just started the "clunking" and I was thinking of bringing it in. Rear brake seems to work fine, however, I get that clunking during "hard" rear braking. Maybe it was there all along and I didn't really notice it as it doesn't seem to happen under normal stopping or I never noticed it (also I have to deal with traffic noise and a helmet). As always thanks for the rubber suggestion. I'll let you know how I make out.

Just so everyone knows what we're talking about....

The plate that the rear caliper mounts to has a slot in it that fits over a "key" that is part of the swingarm.



This slot has to have enough clearance for the "key" to fit into it, and since the mount can rotate on the axle bolt, you will sometimes get a "clunk" whe you hit the rear brake. That sound is from the slot hitting the key as it rotates forward slightly. You could try to affix a piece of thin rubber to the top part of the slot or maybe even squirt a little rtv in there, but it isn't really hurting anything. It just makes a noise sometimes....
If you look close you can see a tiny bit of fretting on the top and left of the slot where some dirt probably got ground in to it. This is my original @ about 16000 miles. I bought a used one and had it chromed.....

Grump,

Thanks for the picture. It really helps this "newbie" out! If you don't mind me asking, where did you get the used one at? Off Ebay? Now that you brought it to our attention, it just seems to scream "chrome me!".

Thanks again,

Steve B.

Steve,
Yep, I got a complete rear axle with adjusters, brake plate, spacers, and drive hub off of ebay - cheap too!

I got the drive hub and the brake plate chromed locally, that cost a lot more than the parts did, but I'm obsessed!

My dealer calls me Captain Chrome....