The other thing that peeved me is the simple fact that the Allen sizes you’ll need for both the front and the back, are metric. But most of the non-caliper related Allen head bolts on the bike are American Standard sized. Why does Harley mix both types on the bike?? (Why does Harley do anything they do…) And yes, the argument can be made that whoever manufactures the calipers could be the drivers for the metric measurements being used, but Harley, being the customer, could always insist upon using the American Standard sizes on the entire bike. But for whatever reason, they choose not to. Bastards.
Enough digressing – let’s get to the brakes, shall we?
One nice thing about these brakes is that all three calipers use the same pads, front and back. I went to my local shop (Cook’s) and picked ‘em up. They’re getting a little pricier these days but hey, when you need to stop, money isn’t really that much of a concern is it? (Three sets of pads were $99.) Maybe you can find ‘em cheaper on-line, but I like to do my part to support the local wrench.
Oh yeah - the other nice thing is that you don't need to take the rear tire off the bike in order to replace the rear brakes. Nicey-nice!!
The ’08 Electra Glide has dual calipers on the front so I started with the easiest one; the right side. Cock the handle bars to the left and voila; a caliper just staring you in the face, asking for attention. I didn’t take pics of this side as I wanted to do a run-through of one side first, and get the process down nice and smoothly before moving on to the left side, where I would then take pics.
Sounds like a good plan, huh? Ok, the truth is that I got caught up in the simplicity of this task and completely forgot to take pics until I’d already finished that side. Really; things moved along that quickly.
So, moving on to the left side, complete with pics this time…
Here we have the left front caliper (please ignore the dirty fender). Just remove the two caliper mounting bolts (highlighted in yellow)…
…and the entire caliper comes loose for ya.
(A note; I don’t open the master cylinder for this next step, it has a diaphragm which allows for expansion and contraction of the fluid which in turn allows for compressing the caliper pistons without a need to open things up. This way, I don’t need to worry about bleeding anything when I’m done.)
Gently slide the caliper off the rotor. I then used a flat headed screwdriver to press against the pads, driving the pistons back into the caliper…
Nice and roomy in there now!!
The next step is to access the retaining pin and retaining bolt which hold the pads in place. Turning the caliper back over, the screened cover simply lifts out with a gentle pry of the flat headed screwdriver…
With that out of the way, the retaining clip is made short work of, with some needle nosed pliers…
Next is to pull the pad retaining bolt. Apparently I didn’t take a pic of this, dammit, so here’s a sneak peak at the same process on the back caliper…
Ok, back to the fronts; here you can see the retaining bolt has been removed and the pads are out. For illustration, I held the old pad up so you can see the tab that the retaining bolt goes through…
A new pad inserted – at the top of the pic you can see the caliper housing holds one end in place. The other end is held in place by the retaining bolt, which goes through the tab seen (at this angle) at the bottom right of the pad.
Look at all the meat on those new pads!!
Insert the 2nd new pad, replace the retaining bolt and the retaining clip, press the screened cover back on, carefully slide the caliper over the rotor and bolt the two caliper bolts back into place and ta-da! Front brakes are done!
BE SURE TO SQUEEZE THE FRONT BRAKE LEVER A FEW TIMES TO COMPRESS THE CALIPERS!! Don’t make the rookie mistake of hopping onto the bike and jamming down the road at high speeds, only to find that you have no brakes as you’re coming up hard on a sharp corner. Don’t do that. Because it scares the crapola out of you if you do do that. Trust me on this one. (That was many years ago!)
Ok, now on to the rear brakes. First is to remove the right saddle bag – a simple task, thanks to the twist pins.
And look; a rear caliper! Hmmmm…it doesn’t look like there’s much wiggle room in there. But trust me; it all works out just fine.
Remove the two caliper mounting bolts – here’s where you need the 8mm Allen head.
Once those are out, you can – gently – twist the caliper up and off the rotor…
Using the flat headed screwdriver, press against the pads to drive the pistons back into the caliper.
There was no screened cover on this caliper, so just flip it over, remove the retaining clip and bolt…
New pads in place…
Then just reassemble everything. Retaining bolt, bolted. Retaining clip, clipped. Caliper…calipered? No? Ok; bolted back onto swingarm.
A few steps on the rear brake pedal to tighten things back up and you’re good to go.
I did the front brakes on Saturday but didn’t get to the rear brakes until last night (I had to wait for a buddy of mine to dig up an 8mm Allen head for me). If you had all the tools readily available and in front of you when you started, I’d say you could have all three sets of brake pads replaced in under a half hour. 45 minutes, tops. Nice, huh?
New brakes? Cool, now I can REALLY…
Ride Hard, Take Chances!
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