need some help with other bike

[beachbum3478]

in my spare time iv been rebuiding an 81 honda cb900c. the last thing it needed was to clean the front brake system. well i did that and bled the brakes. took it out for a ride and in about 10 min the front brakes built up pressure and pretty much locked up. i couldnt even squeeze the brake lever once i was finally able to pull of the road, the rotors/pads were smoking. any ideas guys? thanks.

[rustybronco]

Yes, did you take apart the master cylinder and clean it. or just ran fluid through it?
most likely a port in it is plugged, not allowing the fluid to return to the reservoir.

[flyanimator]

Bronco is right, probably one of the ports is clogged in the master. I read on a honda forum a while back that you could enlarge the return port with a small drill bit, but don't remeber the specifics. might want to google it.

[Nessism]

Riding a 28 year old bike full of jelly instead of brake fluid is bad for your health. You've been warned.

[beachbum3478]

yea i the past week i spent hours cleaning the calipers and the front master cylinder and ran all new fluid in it today. on my other forum someone said that the return hole is extremely small, and i where i thought there wasnt one, apprently there is. so its probably clogged. but if it is clogged, wouldnt it cause the brakes to lock up after a few pulls on the brake lever; and not after riding it for 10 min.

[Nessism]

The brake fluid gains chunkies after a few years which can easily plug up that small hole. Bleeding the system does NOT get all the chunks out, you need to do a full system tear down and clean out, and get new brake lines.

[LarryA_Texas]

brown sugar

I've seen old brake fluid inside the master cylinder turn to goo. That's hard to clean out. You have to take several shots at it but since it's your brakes it's worth the effort.

The next step after goo is ...get this...I've seen brake fluid turn to a sticky, dusty, crumbly stuff that looks exactly like brown sugar. If that's what is inside your master cylinder make dang sure it's all cleaned out.

This isn't a place to take a shortcut.

[jabberjoe87]

You've been on another forum!!!!! grrrrr

[beachbum3478]

its kinda like cheating on your girlfriend isnt it haha. but if you guys wanna hear about a honda all the time too then.....thats what i thought lol.