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Feeling rather pleased with myself, and relieved, that the spring clean, fettling & pre-MOT checks were completed, I went for a bit of a ride this afternoon; it was all going smoothly and enjoyably, until I realised the back brake was barely working.

Expecting to have to bleed it before tomorrow afternoon's MOT, on getting home I started having a poke round, and found that the pin, with circlips, which secures the push-rod to the lever, was missing.



I'm assuming I'll have to have one made, this part not being listed separately.

For the time being, I've replaced it with a 316 stainless bolt, with a Nyloc nut.

I wish that f**king poltergeist would leave me alone.

Mart, looking at your exploded diagram I would have expected to see a washer underneath each circlip (like a thrust washer to take some of the wear)
Would be no surprise to see a circlip fail in those conditions
IMHO a bolt with a nyloc using a plain washer under the bolt head and under the nut is a far better system, tightened to allow a little slack. Did you say you were using stainless ? If so better still.
That fix will pass an MOT, last for a long time and fcuk up the poulterghiests
( did I spell that rong ? )

What he said

fatboy wrote:Mart, looking at your exploded diagram I would have expected to see a washer underneath each circlip (like a thrust washer to take some of the wear)
Would be no surprise to see a circlip fail in those conditions
IMHO a bolt with a nyloc using a plain washer under the bolt head and under the nut is a far better system, tightened to allow a little slack. Did you say you were using stainless ? If so better still.
That fix will pass an MOT, last for a long time and fcuk up the poulterghiests
( did I spell that rong ? )

Thanks for the vote of confidence!

I've just never heard of this happening to other Futs

What they both said.
Sounds fine to me.

It gets weirder.

Apparently, the parts fiche, on all the Aprilia dealer sites I've looked at, is wrong.

The workshop manual shows this (Part No. 1)



According to the chaps who've responded on AF1, whose bikes have this clip arrangement, it should be held in place with a small cable tie. I can't recall ever having seen one on my bike.

Anyway, that clip seems to be identical to the one for the Caponord, so is still (AFAIK before having rung dealers) avaliable, unlike many Fut parts, so I should be able to get one as easily as can be expected when ordering Aprilia parts.

MartDude wrote:
I've just never heard of this happening to other Futs

It happened to the rearsets on my Guzzi once and that had a similar set up.
I pulled off the motorway and the lever that worked two thirds of my brakes was swinging about happily under the bike.
It ended up with a nyloc nut, a bolt and lots of washers.

I ordered the Caponord clip. With Easter imminent, I don't expect to have it for a couple of weeks. In the interim, I'm replacing the SS bolt (threaded all the way) with a high-tensile bolt with a plain shank, plus Nyloc & threadlock.