Linked Brakes - Front Caliper Removal
 

Anyone removed the front calipers from a '14 and up with the linked brakes!


If you haven't, be warned this is a royal pain in the butt! This is from a guy who's been working on bikes and hotrods for years and has a full shop of tools.


I removed mine last weekend to pull, clean and clearcoat the front wheel. These are bigger and longer than any Harley calipers I have ever seen (many). To get them off I had to loosen the pad holding bolts and compress the pads to work the calipers around the wheel and off.


BTW, trike manual supplement says nothing about having to do this. But it also says you can replace the pads with calipers in place, just loosened. I still haven't figured out how that's possible, especially on the inside pads.


Speaking of pads, mine will need replacing in 5k or less, what replacements has anyone used? I would prefer something aftermarket and not Harley.


Just an FYI...


LilMan

Well, I watched as the local indie took my front wheel off to replace my front tire. I believe that he just removed one bolt, loosened the other and pivoted them a little. He had the wheel off, the tire changed, rebalanced, reinstalled and did a test ride, and I was still on my way down the road in about an hour. Didn't seem to be much of an issue, and he was working by himself.

As far as brake pads are concerned, I was going to use Lyndall pads, but they quit production for the TriGlide rears (not sure about the fronts), so I went with EBC HH series sintered pads, and been very happy with them. Getting close to time for the fronts now, so it will be EBC there, too.

I pulled the front wheel on my 14, to have a new front tire put on. I didn't have any problems. Also my pads looked real good. I have aprox. 26,000 miles on them.

I also have had my calipers off twice and have never had an issue ! My pads have 30,000 miles on them front and rear, still looking like plenty left on them. T here is not much there to begin with when new, are you sure they need replaced ? Not to second guess you , but I thought mine were gone also until I bought new ones and actually measuring between old and new ! Ebert:icon_worthy:

I must be the odd man out here, or the idiot. If I take the caliper mounting bolts off of mine and start to slide them back off of the rotors, they hit the wheel way before clearing the rotors.


Only way I could get enough clearance was by compressing the pistons so they could be "kicked" at an angle to miss the wheel.


And no, I was not enjoying cool refreshing beverages that day! :)