Tokico 6 pots - lever travel

Fullers1845 · Renault 5 Driver Joined: 21 Oct 2021 Karma :

Morning folks, last night, against my better judgement (should have done it on a sunday rather than a school night...) I rebuilt the 6-pot calipers and master cylinder on my zx6r.

After faffing about bleeding I think I have a good consistent lever now, no 'sponginess' to speak of but there is a fairly long bit of travel before the brakes bite, about 20mm mid lever. Once this travel is taken up the lever is very firm.

If I set the the lever to it's closest throw setting (5) I can just about squeeze the lever to the bar, anything higher I can't and at about 2 it feels just right.

I know these particular brakes are notorious for long travel/sponginess, trouble is when I got the bike the calipers were seized so don't really have anything previous to gauge it against.

A100man · World Chat Champion Joined: 19 Aug 2013 Karma :

if you haven't already fitted maybe braided hoses will help. I'm told old OEM hoses can 'balloon' slightly.
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Fullers1845 · Renault 5 Driver Joined: 21 Oct 2021 Karma :

I did fit new braided hoses, now left with a cable tie on the lever and gone to work.
I did notice that there was some just noticeable retraction of the pads when I release the lever, maybe the seals will creep back on the pistons by this evening.

Fizzer Thou · World Chat Champion Joined: 06 Aug 2011 Karma :

A friend with a TL1000R had the same problem with his 6 pot calipers.When He eventually got around to trying to sort his front calipers we found a large amount of sludge behind the pistons after removing them all,something that he was unable to do himself.

After we rebuilt them he mounted them up & just could not get the action that he felt happy with.My suggestion was to buy a radial master cylinder where there is a very useful bleed facility near the lever.As far as I know he is still looking to get this done.
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Pete. · Super Spammer Joined: 22 Aug 2006 Karma :

I could never get over this problem until I fitted a 19mm piston master cylinder. I think that the 16mm ones just don't shove enough oil.
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Kawasaki Jimbo · World Chat Champion Joined: 09 Oct 2015 Karma :

Normal, not a problem unless you let the initial lever throw bother you, and no brake work will change it (Pete’s replacement master cylinder upgrade excepted).

Fullers1845 · Renault 5 Driver Joined: 21 Oct 2021 Karma :

Got back from work and released the zip tie which has improved the travel, lever now really firm just a smidge after the microswitch clicks, I think I’ll see how I get on once the bike gets hopefully mot’d in about 3 weeks, but I all seems ok. I was more worried about the bleeding as the whole system was basically starting from dry and heard lots of horror stories about 6 pots but it wasn’t too difficult.