New lines, new seals, new fittings, will it ever end?

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Venhill Power Plus brake lines and stainless steel banjo boltsWell this little job just got a whole lot more involved and costly! The idea of having lovely clean and refreshed  calipers made me think about the old banjo bolts (M10x1) and bleed screws (M8x1.25) … OK, so new stainless ones were ordered from Racebolt, that’s fine. Then it got me thinking about the old tarnished hydraulic hose ends … sigh … OK, so new hoses as well then! 

I went for the ‘Powerhose Plus’ range of hoses and fittings from Venhill down in Surry. I chose ‘carbon’ grey (smoked translucent sheath that shows the hose weave below) with all fittings in stainless steel. I really like these hoses because the end fittings can be rotated – thereby reducing twist in the hose and allowing the hose to sit naturally. This is something I hate with other swaged hoses. With that type, I have nearly always had to induce an amount of twist in the hose to get one banjo to fit the caliper or reservoir. Fair to say, I like neat hoses (and wires!) and I have a smattering of OCD about me when it comes to symmetry … both left and right hoses will HAVE to mirror each other!

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid front brake hose lengthsThe standard hose assembly is  a single hose from the reservoir to a T-piece just below the lower fork clamp, from there a single hose down to each caliper. To replicate this was actually more expensive than using two individual lines from the brake master cylinder. So that’s what I went with – A double banjo bolt at the reservoir and two lines to the calipers using 2 x 45º banjos at the reservoir and 2 x straight banjos at the calipers. For the Rally-Raid the Venhill right hand line (as sat on the bike) is 950mm long and the left hand line is 1,100mm, these will need to be slightly shorter for the standard Caponord. The important point is that the lines plus fittings have to be long enough so that no part of the line, banjo-to-banjo is under tension when the forks are fully extended.

The lines came with three hose support grommets each, and I ended up removing one as it was not needed. Both lines use one grommet located within the existing support grommet that fits in the plastic tray below the headstock, the second is used within the P-clip bracket on the mudguard fixing screws, so two per line (see pics below). The third I used to help buffer the left hand line up at the handlebars … hopefully I’ll get around to designing and printing a 3D bracket to make this support look more ‘factory’ and finally the third support on the right hand line was removed.

So with the lines sorted it was time for the calipers. The left one was removed, stripped and cleaned with Gtechniq W6 Iron and general fallout remover … a rather pungent and powerful liquid that does what it says – strips off 95% of the dirt in one go. Use in a well ventilated place with gloves and goggles, this is nasty stuff! After that, the pistons/seals were stripped out and everything zapped in the ultrasonic bath for a couple of 20 minute cycles until totally clean. Once dry, everything was put back together with new seals, O’ring and bolts (2x 40mm, 1x 35mm). Once everything was back together it was time to bolt the caliper back to the fork leg (50Nm) and have a nice warm brew before starting all over again with the right one.

Conclusion

In all fairness, I couldn’t get over how good the old seals were after 115K+ miles and almost 20 years. The pistons and springs cleaned up beautifully and looked almost new and the anodising inside the bores was hardly marked – totally amaze-balls when I think how badly some Japanese calipers fair after only a couple of winters. I honestly think it is all down to the coating on the pistons and the anodising of the casing that make the difference. As for the cleaning process … I got there in the end! Brake calipers are probably the worst thing to clean on any bike and unfortunately there is no getting away from good old elbow grease … well that and a really aggressive cleaner made for the job! The ultrasonic bath put the icing on the cake, but in all honesty wasn’t strictly necessary, but did remove a little more dirt and added  extra sparkle.

Below is a selection of pics showing hoses and before/after shots of the calipers along with a couple of shots that highlight the kind of crap the Capo put up with for 10 years on a certain Italian road …

Time for a bath …

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Brembo P34 (4 pad) seal kitSeems like brakes have become one of the hot winter topics of late, both on the AF1 forum and in the Moto-A household. The Caponord’s Brembo P34 (4 pad) calipers are getting a little sluggish and starting to drag the pads on the front disks. I’ve cleaned and exercised the pistons but they still feel the same. To be fair the seals are probably somewhere around 20 years old and have every right to feel stiff these days!

So I ordered a seal set from Powerhouse in the UK for £66 (both calipers). They seem to get excellent reviews and I have to say the kit is comprehensive – even containing a little bag of Brembo grease! Of course one thing led to another and thoughts of how best to clean up the calipers resulted in another fine purchase – a 6l ultrasonic cleaning bath! Now that just leaves me watching YouTube videos and experimenting with various cleaning solutions to find the one most suitable for the brakes, luckily I have a stash of old ones kicking around that are perfect for experimentation. 

Aprilia Caponord ETV1000 Rally-Raid Digital Ultrasonic cleaning bathWhen health, weather and motivation are all in alignment over the festive period I’ll make sure the camera battery is charged and do my best to document the little adventure for posterity on the website. It will also be a great opportunity to try out the new torque wrench that I don’t know I’m getting for Christmas ….. 😀 

New main menu item added

As I write this, the UK is slowly beginning to come out of lockdown and taking our beloved Caponords out to stretch their legs is finally becoming a reality …. before then I have tyres to fit, wheels to deep-clean and a poachers bag full of other little jobs to do – on the Capo and on the website.

To that end I want to bring to your attention if I may, the addition of a new heading in the main menu – PARTS. Currently a work in progress, it contains two sub directories (O-Rings & Hose Clamps) but this will be expanded hopefully to include bearings, seals and hoses. All items that we may (or not!) still be able to get from Aprilia, but which may have cheaper and more easily sourced alternatives available. The idea is to present them in independent sections using graphics and hotspots so you can quickly locate the item you need and get the alternative information if there’s any available.

I appreciate some of this information and other alternative parts can be found in the likes of the AF1 forum ‘OEM manufacturers/suppliers’ thread, however it’s a random collection regarding all sorts of parts and sometimes searching can be very hit and miss. Here, I hope to make the search for a particular seal, clamp or O-ring nice and easy – enter the subsection, click on the link to the parts location – fuel pump, cooling system etc – find the highlighted item in the graphic and hover your mouse over it. There’s the part number and current UK price, click on it and any alternative and size info is given in the field on the right hand side – simple. I hope!

Anyway, to help bring this to fruition, I’ve ordered one of every O-Ring I need to measure where that info isn’t readily available, I’ve also ordered a range of Ezyclick and Zero leak clamps to do the same for particular areas of the Capo oil/cooling system. With any luck all this data will be up on the website in a week or so. After that, bearings, seals and hoses. 

One last thought ………. is there any mileage is selling bags of O-Rings – say a service kit, or engine kit for example ….. maybe oil/coolant clamp kit? Just an idea to throw around, what do you think?

Finally, a huge thank you to folks who have donated toward the website this year. Without your help this little project may well have not happened or been way down the line. Website plugins are usually free, with limited functionality – Pro versions have a price tag but have infinitely more functionality – your kind donations have bought those Pro plugins! Thank you.