1977 CB750K Front Brake Overhaul

I began overhauling my front brakes in November when I took the bike off the street. My plan was to order stainless steel lines, new banjo fittings, new hardline, new brake pads and a master cylinder overhaul kit. I ordered most everything from bikebandit.com, however, they shipped me an incorrect adapter fitting for the hardline 3 times in a row before finally just crediting my account and letting me keep the wrong parts for free. I was finally able to track down the correct adapter fitting for the stainless steel hose to the hardline at PegasusAutoRacing.com, who shipped quickly and knew exactly what I was talking about when I called.



The first thing I did was to pull the caliper off the fork, remove the brake pads and use the lever to push the caliper piston out. This took forever and once I'd succeeded I realized I needed to order a new caliper piston as mine was extremely pitted. This part has proven incredibly difficult to find and I am currently in the process of having a few made. If anybody else would like to obtain a 1977 CB750K brake caliper piston, please get in touch as I'm planning on having a few extras made since this part seems increasingly hard to find.



The master cylinder also proved difficult to work with as there is a deep seated snap ring in a long narrow bore. Its purpose is to hold in the rubber boot keeping the master cylinder piston clean. Regular snap ring pliers will not gain access to this snap ring. After several hours spread out over several days trying to coax the snap ring out with sharpened nails, vice grips and other assorted home made tools, I broke down and ordered some long reach right angle snap ring pliers of Ebay.

As of right now, I'm still waiting on the caliper piston and have to finish the master cylinder so I haven't begun reassembly and I haven't bothered to install the lines yet.

Its clear to me that the entire front brake system has likely not undergone any maintenance beyond an occasional bleed and possible pad replacement. The lines, piston, master cylinder components and fittings are all 30+ years old and have 40k on them. Its a testament to Honda that I was still getting function out of these brakes even if it wasn't optimal.

For those about to undergo this process for the first time, I recommend confirming with absolute certainty the availabilty of all parts in the brake sytem ahead of time. If you can't afford to keep your bike down or don't have more than a weekend to complete this task, you'd be best served ordering absolutely every part possible for this system as once you're into this process, you will undoubtedly discover additional parts that need replacement or overhaul.

I'll be posting more on this later and additional pictures can be found here.