94 k75s rear brake pads won't fit

[ludwig]

Hola

Just tried to drop in a set of replacement EBC FA 018 pads that I got from BOB's per a liberry suggestion and the frackers won't fit!

They look to be about a millimeter or so too wide compared to the oem pads that came out.

Am I missing something here?...I don't have access to a grinder, and I'm waaaaaaaay out in the country doing a little (what I thought would be relaxing) bike maintenance.
I'm wondering if I just have a weird anomaly here.....

ludwig

[johnny]

greetings ludwig...

gotts to getts them separated... i tap a wood wedge in there... once spread they should stay separated...

j o

[ludwig]

Thanks for the response Johnny.

Sorry if I wasn't clear.....

it's not the pad depth of the braking surface, it's the actual width of the base (backing) of the pads.

I compared the EBC to the pads that I removed, and they are at least 1-2 millimeters wider across preventing the ability to slide them between the sides of the caliper housing.

[Scott_]

I'd say take a file to them to narrow the backing plate.

[Chaos]

Yeah, if the holes and height all seem ok I'd just use the old pads as a template and trim down the new ones

[johnny]

greetings ludwig...

i have installed at lest 10 sets of these pads with absolutely no issues...

im thinking is time to finesse it with a sledgehammer... remember finesse it... not force it...

j o

[ludwig]

Finesse...right...lol

Assuming I can get a way to grind down the sides, the pad surface height of the new pads are about a millimeter taller than the ones that came out (when I match up the holes and top and bottom edges...any thoughts if that's an issue?

Thanks

[Scott_]

Should be fine.

[K75rt]

This may be obvious but, make sure they sent you the FA18 and not the FA171 (the 171 are 2mm wider...). That happened to me once at Bob's, they had an incorrect EBC figment guide that said my K75 took 171 in the rear.

[motodude]

One other tid-bit.  If you are not the original owner, you may have a rear caliper off of a different year moto-brick.  They did change, slightly, sometime in '87 (I think).  The calipers look identical but they require different pads.

Tom

[ludwig]

I sized up the pads that came out of the fa18 package with the fa171's that they sent for the front and the two sets seem to match up identical...so more than likely these were mis-packaged. In retrospect I remember thinking how the rears and the fronts looked like the same size when I took them out of the box, but this is the first time I've done brake work on this bike so I didn't think anything of it at the time.

I don't have access to a grinder, and there is NOTHING open or available to machine them, AND 4mm is a f*ckload of material to file by hand, so I'll need to drop the old pads back in and push the caliper pistons out gently to where they were before I pressed them back for the installation of the new ones.
The lowest side of the old material measures about 2mm remaining thickness so I will hopefully be ok till I get back to civilization after the holiday and order some different new ones.

Foiled by the manufacturer!

At least I got the oil changed and I'm gonna do a brake flush.

Thanks all for your input!