Suzuki GN 125 Front brake help

[ZedEx48K]

Hi, could anyone tell me how to take apart the front brake calliper etc so I can give it a clean and service?* It's an L plate, 1993 I think, and the bike has been stood for 2 years so it's sticking and I can't get one of the brake pads out.

Thanks


Oh I did use the search feature but it gave me 92 pages to sift though.

*Or a manual for it
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Noob pro!

[talkToTheHat]

There's a Haynes for the Suzuki GN, GZ and DR 125 bikes, but you will likely get more mileage out of their motorcycle techbook, or other intro to motorcycle maintenance.

Two bolts and the caliper should come off the forks? Is there a bolt through the caliper that locks the pads in, I think the gn from brake is different to the gz, with a much smaller disk and generally different design. Nothing too odd though.

There are plenty of guides online about cleaning up brake calipers. Your single piston hobby should be easy. Just don't spill brake fluid on your metalwork or get it in your eyes. I think you can get the whole system off the bike without opening it and then very carefully use the hydraulic system to push the piston out. Cover with rags and do it in a bucket well away from your bike and then strip and wash immediately.

Pay particular attention to what grease to use where. Don't use too much and don't get it on your friction surfaces.

You will need to know how to bleed brakes to get it all back together.

If the piston looks badly pitted, replace it. There are likely piston and seals kits on wemoto or eBay for not a lot of money.

I think my local independent fitted me a braided brake line, stripped, cleaned and replaced seals on front of my current bike which is a similar single piston relic, just bigger, and charged me about an hour's labour and parts.

I will work on brakes, unless it happens to be my only transport and I'm likely to spend a crapton more getting parts to fix my screwup or getting about whilst I wait. Get brakes wrong and you either don't stop when you need to, or pull an inadvertent stoppie on the dual carriageway as the brakes lock on.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[ZedEx48K]

Thanks for the reply, I'm not too scared of brakes, used to working on cars, but bikes as much as they are the same feel different to me I think my problem is that there will be a head to unscrew under a rubber plug, that thing is well stuck in there and not coming out (just stretching) being new to this I didn't want to go and break the wrong part is all, but it looks to be the only way to separate the retainer from the calliper block.
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Noob pro!

[ZedEx48K]

Well to answer my own question (in case others search for it).

The brake should compress along the 2 arms to allow pad removal and then slide apart into 2 pieces, in my case the 2 arms that do the sliding are what were stuck in place, once I figured that it was a case of having a He-man moment to prise them apart and then a good cleaning a re-grease session, all seems good now
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Noob pro!