[Warren Graves]

I own a 2001 ZZ4/350. While working on installing a hitch on the bike I noticed that my rear brake caliper was was shifted to one side, and that the rotor was starting to dig into the caliper. When I removed the (Wilwood) caliper and shoes I saw that they had shifted and worn the shoes unevenly, evetually eating into the caliper. While talking to one of the shops they said that they had two '01 Hoss's with the same problem. Has any one else experienced this problem, and is there a good fix?

 

[V8soundlover]

Warren,
you've got to make sure that the bracket which holds the caliper
is in a 90 deg angle and is equal to the brake rotor (when tightened).
Mine were not really 90 deg, I had to bend it a couple degrees until
it was perfect.

Then loosen it, and shim the caliper until it is in the center of the brake rotor (front AND rear site). You might need longer bolts for doing this.

Also you've got to make sure that your brake rod (with the ball ends) is taken off the caliper when you adjust the belt tension. After you've adjusted the belt tension you have to make sure that the bolt (brake rod to caliper bracket) is going thru them both very easy. You can adjust the lenght of the chrome rod by the thread at the end of the rod. After you tightened the bolt you should still able to turn the the balls with your fingers. And put a little grease to the ball ends every time you take the chrome rod off.

Loaf

 

[Aussie Rob]

Same bike, same problem. I replaced the pads, cleaned the pistons, & now keep a real close watch on how they are wearing.

 

[V8soundlover]

It's not a particular problem of the 2001 bikes. I had the same prob with my 99' Boss. My pal Andy's brake pistons of his 2000 502 were very close to fall out of the left side bores when we've been in Austria last year. And his rear rotor was dark blue. Another Boss pal from Germany had also the same kind of problems with a 97 Boss.

Loud pipes,
Loaf

PS: Robby, how's the weather down there? Are you able to ride this time of the year?

 

[Zenbiker]

Same problem. As Olaf said, the trick is that the caiper bracket be absolutely parallel to the rotor. Olaf bent his but I just placed two washers between the bracket and the swingarm to elevate the outside edge and got the same effect. Loaf, how did you bend that sucker?...Joe

 

[Adrian]

The 01 has a floating calipers it is different than the 2000 and earlier. The problem that the 01 is having is the pucks are stuck and needs to be removed and cleaned out. I have seen it twice and is fixable but you should get new pads.

Adrian

 

[V8soundlover]

Same problem. As Olaf said, the trick is that the caiper bracket be absolutely parallel to the rotor. Olaf bent his but I just placed two washers between the bracket and the swingarm to elevate the outside edge and got the same effect. Loaf, how did you bend that sucker?...Joe

Joe,
I did bend it a year ago, when I had my rear wheel out. I did it on my workbench. On Andy's 502 we did it the same way like you say (with washers)- worked good as well.

Loaf

 

[Zenbiker]

Loaf...how did you bend it on the bench. Is a very thick piece of steel! Did you just put it in the vise and whack it? If not...how did you bend it to 90 degrees?...Joe

 

[V8soundlover]

Loaf...how did you bend it on the bench. Is a very thick piece of steel! Did you just put it in the vise and whack it? If not...how did you bend it to 90 degrees?...Joe

That's what I did. I measured the angle I needed to make it parallel to the rotor before I took the rear wheel out. (I borrowed an angle gauge from work). If I remember right I only needed 88 degrees.

Then I put it in a jaw (with the short side), and whacked the longer side with a big 4 lbs plastic hammer until it was 88 degrees.

Loaf

 

[Warren Graves]

I appreciate all the replies. As Adrian stated, the bracket is free floating. There is no problem with it being parallel to the rotor. The problem I see is that there is too much play back in forth, (in and out of paralell), which means there is nothing stopping it from moving other than the pads themselves. I wonder how critical it is that the bracket is allowed to free float in there, and if it would hurt anything to machine out the bracket and put a wider bushing in it to hold it parallel to the rotor? Or just a wider bracket? I did notice that the inboard "pucks" were not out as far as the outboard, so they may have been stuck. I take it that this is not something that the factory has addressed?

 

[Zenbiker]

I had pucks that were binding on mine. Removed them and used 2000 grit sandpaper on the pucks and bores. Cleaned them all up and replaced. I found a fair amount of black **** in there and black sticky garbage on the pucks. All seems ok now. I have the non-floating 2000 Wildwood caliper on the rear. Re-used the seals that seemed good and the brake seems to be working well. My caliper was cocked due to the bracket not being parallel to the rotor which I fixed. I believe that the caliper being cocked put lateral pressure on the pcks causing them to bind. I think the rear brake setup leaves a lot to be desired on my 2000. We shouldn't need to shim the caliper or the holding bracket but I've had to do just that to get it straight...Joe

 

[Warren Graves]

I spoke with Mark at Boss Hoss. He felt that maybe the chrome arm that connects the bracket to the frame may need to be moved to the inside to keep the bracket straight. I was hoping to hear that they had come up with a good retro fit with the new Brembo or something, but no such luck. I appreciate all the good info, I'm gonna do it all and then just keep a real close eye on them!

 

[Zenbiker]

Warren...I tried moving the bracket every which way and all that did was to move it farther from the rotor or nearer but, of course, did nothing to change it's angle and parallelism to the rotor. Mark is wrong. The bracket was just not bent to the correct angle...PERIOD! Try it and you'll see that the bracket either has to be shimmed under it's outside edge or bent....Joe