Brake maintenance for your HPI 5B & 5T

Your brakes are an important part of your Buggy. If they aren’t properly maintained your flirting with disaster. Its an easy task and only take a few minutes.

Parts:

• Brake pads HPI #87456 (As Needed)
• Brake disk Rotor HPI #87424 (As Needed)
• Brake shims HPI #87437 (As Needed)

Optional parts:

• Baja 5B Stainless Steel Screw Kit
• (1) 12 X 24 X 6 Rubber shielded bearing
• Complete Baja 5B Bearing kit
• Body Clips

Tools:

• Needle nose pliers
• 3mm Hex Wrench
• 5/64th Hex Wrench
• Blue Locktite

Time:
30 minutes or less

Skill level:
Easy

Remove rear wheels. If your only doing brake maintenance you can just remove the right rear. Remove gear cover and plastic plate. There are 2 Body clips holding the cover on. they are located on the rear of the cover. There is a flat button on the front of the cover that can be rotated to make removing the clip easier. Use your needle nose pliers to pull the clips out. At his point the cover will come right off. You will also need to remove the plastic plate located above the spur gear.

Now remove E-Clip that holds the spur gear onto the shaft.
Place the tip of a small flathead screwdriver in between the shaft and the E-Clip and gently twist the screwdriver. You may want to make a tent with a rag over your hand and the spur gear to keep the clip from flying across the room.

Once the clip is removed, pull evenly on both sides of the spur gear to remove it from the shaft.

Remove the purple bushing from the shaft.

Using a 5/64th hex wrench, loosen the brake leaver set screw. Slide brake leaver out of the cam shaft hole and let it hang out of the way. Make sure you don’t loose the set screw. You will also want to use some Blue Locktite on the set screw when you reassemble it.

Remove the 3 screws securing the top brake holder plate. Be careful you don’t drop or loose the copper colored brake cam bushing that is inserted in the top plate.

With your fingers reach in and remove the brake pad assembly, purple top plate spacer, and brake cam.
Inspect the brake pads for excessive wear. If they are 1/2 used or more you will want to replace them.

Using a 3mm Hex wrench, remove the 2 screws from the gear plate that are the farthest to the right. One on each side of the pinion gear.

Rock the pate with your hand sliding it off the end of the shaft. This is a good time to check the condition of the bearing located in the center of the plate you just removed. If it looks damaged, doesn’t freely rotate or feels the least bit rough as you spin it, its time to replace it.

Slide the brake rotors and fin plate off the shaft. Inspect the rotors for wear if they are 1mm or less in thickness you will want to replace them. Its always best to replace all the worn brake components at the same time. It will insure that you have proper braking at all times.

Follow the tutorial backwards using the photos as a guide to put everything back together. Make sure you adjust the brake linkage properly after reassembling everything. Consult the HPI 5B Users Manual for the proper settings.

During the making of this guide we chose to use a Stainless Steel screw kit to replace the factory screws. Stainless Steel doesn’t rust and offers much better protection against the elements. I also have to say they look great. We also chose to replace the bearings at the time of this guide. In our shop we use only Blue Locktite jell stick. Its a lot less messy and can accurately be applied to the threads more so then liquid. Our biggest reason is that it doesn’t separate so there is no need to shake it up before every use.

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