Rear brake lever

[Guest The F]

My rear brake lever siezed up around a month or so ago, so I soaked it in wd40 to get it moving again until I could fix it. I've stripped it all down while the bike is out of action and cleaned the crud out of it etc.

 

What type of grease should I use before I reassemble it? 

[Guest Big Shot]

I use "Copper Ease" made by Comma... called by many names. Used it for the past 20 years. Always works for me

Edited July 9, 2015 by Big Shot

[Guest The F]

I've got plenty of copper grease, along with every other grease. I'm not used to the whole bike thing, I've been a car person all my life. I wasn't really sure whether copper grease would give the part the luubrication it needs. I've only ever used it to prevent corrosion and stop bolts etc from seizing. Every time I work on something like this brake lever I just can't get over how exposed to the elements it is. It comes as no surprise at all that it's seized up. Maybe I'll just not bother, it will be seized up again after another winter anyway

 

It wouldn't have cost Honda much more to stick a rubber boot on this part, and brakes a fairly important part of a motorcycle in my eyes. If bikes were more weatherproof maybe people would ride them more, and in turn generate more money for bike manufacturers. Anyway, rant over  

[embee 7,288]

As you say, copper grease is an anti-seize product not a lubricant, it has copper flakes in it which can in theory act as an abrasive. Use either a regular LM type grease or a molybdenum/graphite type (MS3 or similar) which is well suited to short action reversing movement. You can use a water-resistant type too if you wish, like Castrol CL, but I find that can tend to stiffen up over time. I tend to use the regular LM type.

[Guest bonekicker]

After freeing off or disassemble and clean any grease will do ---but also keep these areas clean and lubricated with 3 in 1 oil or similar--prevention is always better than cure.

[Tonyj 6,907]

Bit of lard my old son fought two bloody wars on the stuff.

[Guest John_Minus_600]

I tend to use White grease sparingly; or If its an area thats getting a lot of dirt/dust ingress ACF-50 regularly without grease.

[Guest The F]

After freeing off or disassemble and clean any grease will do ---but also keep these areas clean and lubricated with 3 in 1 oil or similar--prevention is always better than cure.

I would much prefer the preventative action plan, but alas its just not practical for me. The bike does 75 mile to work and back 6 days a week, regardless of weather. It didn't miss a single day throughout the winter. Any oil / grease / acf50 that I apply is usually gone after one trip to work in the rain. Even the copper grease that the main dealers insist on plastering everywhere during a service doesn't usually last more than a couple of days. I also work shifts, and always get home from work at antisocial hours, so washing it off every day is not possible either. On the one day I do get off every week I'm more interested in spending time with the family than rolling around under my bike. Unfortunately this means every now and again I have to scrape off enough dirt to see what went wrong and try to fix it. Its only taken me about a month to get round to this one   Of course I blame the dealer   it siezed up the day the serviced it and fitted new rear pads. I'm kidding by the way, before anybody jumps to the defence of the dealer

I tend to use White grease sparingly; or If its an area thats getting a lot of dirt/dust ingress ACF-50 regularly without grease.

I've used acf50 a fair bit in the past but one thing I've always found is that once I've used it, if I don't use it all the rest goes to waste as the next time I want it the tin wont work

[Guest John_Minus_600]

I've used acf50 a fair bit in the past but one thing I've always found is that once I've used it, if I don't use it all the rest goes to waste as the next time I want it the tin wont work

 

Bizarre, never had that before... When I had my Fazer years ago I used some foam rubber tubing around the exposed part of the gear shift shaft, white greased first. It did a good job of keeping the corrosion at bay during the winter. Perhaps you could use something like that to protect problem parts.