Hit and Run

[bdfinally]

Long story short, yesterday evening I'm sitting in a restaurant and across the street a girl who had tried to run out on her tab, backup up into my bike and drove away, even with 2 people yelling at her. Got the license number and even her name from the waitress and called the police. It was her car and she live just outside the city limits so now two police juridictions are involved. The city officer left after getting my info to ride out there and see if she couldn't convince her to come back and talk to me about it, but after waiting an hour i left to go home...or tried to anyway. Rear brake was frozen to the rotor. Luckily I only live 2 blocks away so got some tool and a flash light and took the caliber off the rotor. this morning I took a really good look and it's dinged up in several places...luckily tho no tank damage. I've put the caliber back on and it'll roll but no joy on having any rear brakes, lever is bent all to chit and aligning everything looks not good. My question is how worried should I be about the master cyclinder?
 
 http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2159250850103104223vYItgw

 http://good-times.webshots.com/photo/2411820860103104223ndhdHs

[Speeddog]

Sorry to hear about that. 

Pull the master off, and remove the rubber boot.
See if the piston looks like it's fully extended toward that end.

It may just be that your lever is hung up due to being bent, keeping the brake applied.

Good news is those masters are fairly inexpensive.

The brake levers are pretty robust, you likely will be able to bend it back to a serviceable shape.

[bdfinally]

Dog, you're everywhere today. Thanks for the heads up on the master, think I'll wait til it cools down and do that. It looks like the  lever is racked pretty good and the rod looks off alignment, but can't tell if it bent in there.

[Howie]

Sorry to hear.  At least you know who is responsible.  Here's hoping she has insurance.  I do hope this costs her a lot more than the dinner tab.

[bdfinally]

Sorry to hear about that. 

Pull the master off, and remove the rubber boot.
See if the piston looks like it's fully extended toward that end.

It may just be that your lever is hung up due to being bent, keeping the brake applied.

Good news is those masters are fairly inexpensive.

The brake levers are pretty robust, you likely will be able to bend it back to a serviceable shape.

Looks like both the lever and the bolt hold it to the inside of the rear set are bent....that thing took a lick. Measured the  screw that activates the brake switch and that baby is a half inch out of alignment

[bdfinally]

and the "pin" that hold it together looks like this...anyway to do a quick fix on this and be mobile. perhaps put a nut on the end, put it in a vice and try to bend back out, don't want to screw the threads up on the rear set tho.

  

[Speeddog]

Yeah, you can put a nut on it and bend it back witn a vise.
That's bent a lot, check to make sure it threads back into the rearset easily.

[bdfinally]

nope, didn't work, it snaped off. Threaded up on a bar nut to the point it was bent, put it in a vise and bent it back a bit, then threaded up again to where the bend was...etc. The last bit where i had all the threads inside and gave it just a bit of a tug and it snapped flush. I wonder how many models share that pin number, cause I sure don't want to wait a week and a half for it.

[Speeddog]

Well, sorry that didn't work.

I think all of the Monsters up to S*R used the same pivot bolt, so it shouldn't be a big issue to get another.

[Scottish]

Alright, my ghetto ass has a fix for this.... do you have the plastic tank? If you do you'll find some plastic bushings that go in the hole around the pin at the hinge point. If you have an extra or access to one. Cut it just a little wider than the brake lever, sand it till it slides in, grab a bolt and put a washer on either end and ZAMMO, you're in business until you get a new one in. Or if you're like me, you're good just like that.

[bdfinally]

Alright, my ghetto ass has a fix for this.... do you have the plastic tank? If you do you'll find some plastic bushings that go in the hole around the pin at the hinge point. If you have an extra or access to one. Cut it just a little wider than the brake lever, sand it till it slides in, grab a bolt and put a washer on either end and ZAMMO, you're in business until you get a new one in. Or if you're like me, you're good just like that.

Nice try WDB, but my tank is metal...guess I could get some pvc pipe from Lowe's and do the same deal, but then I'd feel kind weird since it's a rear brake part and would hate for it to fail at the wrong time. Hopefully Redline will have the pin in stock.

[COWBOY]

So did the pregnant dog finally fess up or what?  You shouldn't have to ghetto your bike because some thief dogged your bike.

[bdfinally]

Actually no, not yet. It seems that with the make of the car, a tag number, the name of the driver and a witness that this case would be a slam dunk, and it might be, but I can't get hold of the detective that been assigned to the case. I've given the inventory of damaged parts to dealership and they're doing an estimate, should be right around a grand.

anyway having other issues now. When I replaced the pin and spring on the rear brake lever and buttoned it all back up, I had very mushy brakes. It would hold the bike on a hill, but actually using them at anything above 5 mph wasn't really doing anything. Yesterday I tried bleeding the rear caliper and now I've lost all of what I had. When I had the lever apart I sanded off all the corrision on the adjuster rod and reinstalled it at what I thought was the proper length inside the master cylinder. Took everything apart again just now and threaded more into the master, but still no joy. I guess I'll just flush the system and see what that does...any other suggestions?