Installing the rear wheel - AAAAGGGGGHHHHH!!!!!

I had an interesting time installing my rear wheel the other night after replacing my sprocket. The damn thing would not go in past the brake caliper. I could get the brake rotor partially installed into the caliper but it kept snagging on something and wouldn't go in all the way. Finally got a buddy to help hold the wheel while I lined things up. We farted with it for almost two beers then on the last try I heard this "tink" noise like a small metal part had hit the floor.

Turns out nothing hit the floor or fell off the bike. We pulled the wheel back off and inspected the caliper and found that the lower clip for the brake pad had slid over to the left. One of the tabs had come "unbent" from it's seat and allowed the whole clip to slid to the left. It was keeping the rotor from going into the caliper and actually got stuck in one of the small holes in the rotor so the wheel would not turn. We jimmied with it enough to get the wheel back off the bike and that's when I saw what had happened. We must have forced something a little too hard to undo this clip. I had to slide it back to the right side of the caliper and bend the tab back down to keep it from sliding back to the left. It's kind of hard to explain, but here is a pic of what clip I am talking about...



The arrow in the middle points to the tab that is bent down to hold the clip from sliding either direction. There is one on both sides of the caliper. I am not any good with brakes, so forgive my lack of technical terms for this stuff. Anyhow, this clip appears to hold the lower part of the brake pads in place and when the tab came unbent, it allowed the lower part of the right side brake pad to pop out of place, complicating matters further. It took a little bit of pounding with some punches to get the tab on the clip to bend back down enough to keep it from sliding. And we finally got the wheel installed. What a BITCH! *Mark has another beer*

Do any of you have any tricks to hold this crap in place while installing the rear wheel? I was thinking of making a spacer to install between the pads to hold them in check while installing the rear wheel. Once the rotor is securely in the caliper, slide out the spacer and finish inserting the wheels the rest of the way into the caliper. Make sense? Any ideas, suggestions to make this job easier? I never touched the brake pedal and the caliper pistons were retracted all the way. It was just this damn clip that came loose.

Actually, I was happy to find out that installing the rear wheel on my WR-250R with the caliper still in place was easy.
I say that I was happy to find this out because I've had bikes where trying to install the rear wheel while getting the brake rotor to cleanly slot in position between the brake pads was murder and it was easier to just remove the caliper before putting the wheel back on.
In fact, my other bike, a 2009 DR-Z400SM, is one of those bikes.

I'm wondering if one of your brake pads got pushed out of position before you tried to install the rear wheel.

Those little clippie things, by the way, prevent the pads from gouging the relatively soft metal of the caliper bracket while bearing the torque force of the pads clamping against the spinning rotor.
Don't ride your bike without them. :)

lol....I did the same exact thing when I was mounting my Avons....Every four letter word came out of my mouth

Funny thing is I've had the rear off a bunch of times and never had an issue.

I actually had to remove the brake pads and reposition them correctly twice to get the rear on. Sucks when all this is happening trailside.

*Glad it's not just me.



**ooops, that wasn't ride report, that was "tube troubles".

You've done a great service by informing about the "clip".

I've not had the rear wheel off my X yet, but on other bikes I typically removed the entire rear brake caliper to make things easier.

Trying to line up the brake disk into that narrow groove while keeping spacers and such in place was too painful.

Thanks for the heads up. I've never owned a motorcycle with "clips" on the brake pads.

I guess I should have mentioned that I have a 150/70 rear tire. A little wider than my stocker. This requires the caliper to be removed so I can fit the fat tire into place. Sliding the caliper back into that groove is a real bitch. I am also trying not to scratch my new Machesini wheels too. It's just a major pain to try to hold everything at the same time without catching the rotor on this clip.

From past experience when changing break pads, the brake pads themselves are mear micro-inches away from the disk. When you remove the rear wheel and/or caliper it's always easiest to "force" the pads apart before trying to reinstall.

I've seen guys do this by simply wedging a large screw-driver between the two pads and gently "wiggling" the gap wider.

I've removed the pads and used a "c clamp" to compress the caliper "pucks" to their deepest setting which them leaves "tons" of room for the brake disk to slide into place.

You just have to remember to really pump the back brake a lot to close the pads all the way.

mwakey wrote:

I had an interesting time installing my rear wheel the other night after replacing my sprocket. The damn thing would not go in past the brake caliper. I could get the brake rotor partially installed into the caliper but it kept snagging on something and wouldn't go in all the way. Finally got a buddy to help hold the wheel while I lined things up. We farted with it for almost two beers then on the last try I heard this "tink" noise like a small metal part had hit the floor.

Now that's a scary tale. I'm trying to imagine that being me, all by myself, up about 10,000 feet on top of a mountain, getting dark, outside of cell phone coverage, trying to reinstall my rear tire while going "What the hell is going on here"...

There's a reason I always go hunting, fishing, biking, etc prepared to spend the night out in the bush. A miserable night, perhaps, but not a life threatening one...

One thing I know I should do is take a couple of hours and uninstall and reinstall my rear tire a couple of times while the service manual, bright lights, lots of tools, and a comfortable bed and kitchen are all nearby... Assuming it will be a piece of piss because I could remove and reinstall the rear tire on my MX bikes with my eyes closed 30 years ago is a dangerous state of mind. Different brakes, different bikes, different, different, different... Not to mention the only thing I have wrenched on in the intervening 30 years is pounding track on APCs with a 20 lb sledge and computer techie stuff... Not exactly the kind of thing that keeps up mechanical skills...

Thanks for the heads up, Mark.

Did you go for a tire change cause the stock was needing a replacement or just cause.... sometimes bigger is better. What brand & tread style?

I went with the bigger tire mainly because they came with the new Marchesini wheels I bought from a guy on SMJ. It was a great deal on brand new wheels with new tires, rotors and sprocket. Couldn't pass it up. The tires are Conti Road Attacks. 150/70ZR17 rear and 120/70ZR17 front. Love them so far but hardly have much time on them yet with all the rain. Hurricane season sucks!

Use cauation when pushing the brake pistons back as the fluid resivor is very small and is not designed for the piston to be pushed back excessively. Brake fluid may come out the vent/fill cap on the rear master cylinder....

Good point SpagGuru, there is also the sand/dirt that is common to have collected around slave cylinder piston area.
Years past there were black rubber dust covers but don't know about now. That piston(s) need to be reseated against the back of the brake pads & pads against the disc. Consider using shorter strokes on the brake peddle or the upper hand lever when building up immediate brake pressure. Long strokes can push the road crap around the normally clean area of the piston seal area. Please never use air pressuer to blast out the sand/dirt from between the piston & the caliper. This will only blast abrasives tightly around the seal & could quickly render a good seal into a leaky seal.

I know you have completed your task but this may help head off a bad idea from another who wants to clean things up before getting started.

Any MPG increase w/ your 40? Did your over size tire raise your ride?

That Conti Road Attack is the same tire that came on my 09 BMW R1200GS. That tires should give you at least 20,000 miles. I have well over 10,000 on my GS now & it(tire) is still going strong.
So what are you going to do w/ the stock X tires?

Can't say I've ever run into that trouble with my R², and I've had that wheel out 5 times now. All I did was roll the thing back through the pads, and then lift it up and slide the axle in. The one thing I had trouble with were the wheel spacers falling out, but with a good wad of Ultra Duty-II they stayed put.

Can't say anything about the mileage with the new 40, since I haven't run it enough. Thanks for the info on the tires though. Good to hear they will last a long time. The stockers were worn out in about 4K miles. I sold the stock wheels and tires when I got the new ones. Jaynen on TT bought them for his R². I don't think the oversize tires raised the bike much.

I recently bought the same factory replacement tires.
These are the best stock tires I have ever ran w/, & just cannot fault them at all.
That is neat that you have tires that come stock on a $18,000+ BMW mounted on a hot 250. Must be a message somewhere in there.

Have fun w/ them.

I stumbled (OK I searched) on to this thread after I reinstalled the rear wheel for the first time. I was hoping there might be a trick to making it easier. I knew I would be doing this again soon because I needed new tires. Not that I had as much or the same troubles as some posted earlier. But here's my deal -- The wider wheel of the X is tricky to get around the caliper & the rotor between the pads while not getting hung up on the chain guide. This should only be complicated if you purchase a wider tire (which you will if you buy anything other than the stock bt90's). So, I just mounted my new Rossos & the rear wheel was no problem. Here's what I did: 1) Slid the caliper as far toward the back of the bike as it would go. 2) Lifted the wheel & approached the caliper from above. These two steps take the chain guide out of the equation while giving you better line of sight to position the rotor between the pads. It made a BIG difference for me.

Make sure your wheel spacers are put back in the right way too! There is a short one and a long one; the long one goes on the sprocket side.

When I helped a buddy change out his tires on his X I do not remember it being a problem. I think that we unbolted the brake hose guide and was able to slide the caliper and bracket out of the slot. Then there was plenty of tire and wheel installation clearance.

"

I just put a 2" X 4" crossed on another one. I roll the wheel on the 2" X 4" and when it's lined correctly I just use the 2" X 4" as a lever to lift the wheel straight up.