Rear Brake Lever Installation (I'm an idiot)

A lesson if you ever take the rear brake lever out of the frame, also a bit of a vent on my own stupidity.

So I was bolting a few of the pieces back on my 1982 XJ750RJ Seca. So far the frame's got two wheels on it, a wiring harness, handlebars and gauges. I decided to reinstall the brake lever that I had removed who-knows-when, when I realized that it doesn't fit around the torque arm. I tried just removing the shocks and pushing the rear end down, deflating the tires, but I finally had to give up and take the wheel off again mangling all the newly installed cotter pins, to maneuver the swing arm out of the way and install the brake lever. Hopefully lesson learned.

Here's the really idiot part. When trying to install the torque arm, I realized that when previously installing it, I didn't set the frame end of the torque arm inside the flanges welded on the swing arm, I bolted to the side of the flange. The flanges were all bent out of shape and it took like 2 hours to pry them open to accept the torque arm again. I should have noticed that when tightening the torque arm bolt, the torque reading off my beam torque wrench didn't increase for a couple of revolutions. Now I know that the flanges were deforming that whole time.

Anyway, I guess there are two lessons there, one install the break lever before the wheel, and two, if you get a funny feeling with the result of a torque wrench, stop and be very suspicious.

 

Good observations. The old Haste makes waste idiom proves itself out time after time. I have learned to slow down. My natural inclination is to forge full speed ahead. It has put me in situations similar to yours many times.

Thanks for sharing.

 

With a compleat rebuild, I make sure the brake shaft is the first thing back into the frame, wired in place & up the right way, 'cos you cant turn it round either.