I want to pull off my wheel to have the shop put my new tire on, but I'm not sure how much of the rear brake caliper I need to remove. The clymer manual says that to remove the rear tire, I only need to pivot the brake caliper up. But the rear brake caliper section says I need to drain the fluid if I'm going to remove the caliper. Is this true? If I'm careful not to squeeze the rear brake when after I take the wheel off, can I get by without having to drain the fluid? If I do need to bleed the brakes, is it something that's better left for the shop, or is it easy enough with the right tools? Thanks for your help,
-Chris
You don't need to bleed it. Just slide the caliper off, put something btw the pads (like a clear plastic tube) so that they don't close, and move it out of the way. Make sure you don't press the rear brake.
You can leave the caliper on the bike when you take the tire off, it just rotates up and you can slide the tire out. I think what the book means that when you completly remove the caliper from the bike you would have to remove the fluid.
I have never put anything between the pads, but that's not a bad idea.
Speaking of the tools needed to bleed the brakes, I used to do it with:
* A container of brake fluid (of course),
* A Philips head screwdriver to get the lid off of the brake fluid reservoir
* A 10mm (I think) wrench
* A bendable straw
* A Dixie cup
* A piece of tape[/list:u]You could use something besides the cup and straw, of course. That's just what I came up with so I could use one of my hands to operate the brake lever and the other to operate the wrench. I pushed the short end of the straw right over the bleed nipple, bent the long end down into the cup, taped the cup at that height, and then did the open-press-close-release thing until I was done. (Not forgetting, of course, to refill the reservoir BEFORE it emptied out!)
I used a piece of aquarium hose to drain the fluid from the caliper. Also a way to keep both hands free. With both hands free I can fill and bleed the system in 5 mins. It's really easy.
But as already said, you don't need to remove the caliper. It's a good idea to put something under de centerstand so when you lift the bike on the centerstand it's higher than usual. That's nice if you want to remove the rearwheel, gives you more room to lower the wheel and get it out easily.
I've never had to do anything with the rear caliper when taking off the rear wheel. If the bike is on the centerstand, when you pull the axle out, you should be able to lower the rear wheel and roll it out, no problem.
if moving it up, as they said, (it works), gives you some resistance, after the mounting bolts are removed, you can compress the piston by applying pressure to the caliper. (to give yourself leverage, while pushing on cal, pull on disc, ((with fingers)) it works every time, then caliper should come right off.) just remember to press on brake lever a few times afterwards, to build the pressure back up. :thumb: