About to go NUTS

[Badmammajamma]

Lets see...My bike has been on stands for the past 3 weeks with rear bearing/carrier issues. I have the bearings and the seals will be here tomorrow morning.

Heres's the problem:

I ordered 3 pair of brake pads because I knew mine were all gone. Well...I pulled the front pads off, changed them, put it back together. Now my front brakes lock up very badly. I bled them a few times just to make sure there was no air in the line and they are still locking up badly. I can barely spin the front tires with my hands. Should I pull the calipers apart and clean them up or what? Thanks in advance.

[Badmammajamma]

Heres another question. Do the front and rear brakes use the same pads?

[bradley300]

they all use the same pads on a 400ex. you probably need to push the pistons in

[John451]

You need to take the lid off the front resvoir and take the pads off both sides. Use a giant c clamp or one of those wood clamps where you pull the trigger to close it, C is alot easier and squeeze the piston in until its level with the caliper cast then put the pads back in and pump the brakes with the lid off then bleed them one final time if needed and it should be ready to go. Dont pump them til the disk and pads are in. Squeezing the pistons in sets the preload and they will always go back to that position after the brakes are released. That's what pumping them with the lid off after does. Good luck!

when i replaced the pads on the rear of my 400ex i didnt bleed the lines or open the resevoir or anything, I just took the old pads out, pushed the piston in a little, put the new pads in and thats that it works fine and there wasnt a need to mess around ith bleeding the lines. Maybe the front are different idk i havent changed them yet but i'm going to have to this year.

[Black R/T]

those are floating calipers meaning they move side to side on pins. pull the pins out, clean them and then grease them and see if that doesnt relieve some of your problem.