*&^%$#&@! What am I doing wrong with this ca

[rizp]

Ok, so I looked at the front wheel and thought to myself, "okay, I can take this off without reading anything first." so I did.

I unscrewed loosened the front caliper bolts and took the caliper off to get the wheel off. Then I got the tire changed, and went to reassemble. I put everything back together, and now the front brake is rubbing on the disc. what the heck? I thought maybe I didn't tighten the bolts enough, and as I started trying to tighten the top bolt more, it started to turn more easily so I stopped. now, here I am, thinking I snapped one of my front caliper bolts, with a front wheel that won't rotate freely? it rotates but the front brake is obviously rubbing against the disc. what's going on? gaah! did I screw up the front caliper? how do I correct for this? damn damn damn damn!

Exasperated,
Riz
:x

[Ed89]

If you have not stripped the threads (I somehow doubt it, since the bolts are pretty robust), then just tighten it to specs.  There will be a little rubbing of the pads on the rotor.

Cheers,
e.

[rizp]

well, it got pretty tight, then suddenly became loose again, so I'm not sure about the stripping, but it's definitely rubbing more than a little bit. If I try to spin thw wheel hard it won't come around one whole turn. also of note: as I was trying to put the brake back in place, the left pad "flipped" down, so it was just dangling by some kind of pin in the back. I flipped it back up and could physically manipulate the caliper back and forth to set it on it's 'perch'.  then I mounted the brake. any other ideas?

Regards,
Riz

[denman]

i have had that happen to me.    you dont have to take off the callaper to remove the wheel.    put the callaper back on then loosen up the axle and just move the wheel around a little the wheel is not seeted up square.   it sounds crazy but that fixed mine.   see ya.

[TR]

Perhaps the fault comes at the time of tighten the front axle, I think I read in the Clymers you should reassemble everything before start tightening. Also, if you blew out the caliper screw fix that first or the caliper won't work properly.

If the caliper bolt is OK, how do you know the caliper rubbers too much? by just turning the wheel by hand? have you applied the fron brake? how much does it rub after that?

[rizp]

[TOMIMOTO]

I have the same rubbing problem. Wheel won't spin a whole turn by spinning it. I recently changed the pads. Me and my dad have tried everything to stop the rubbing. The pads should be broken in by now so it's not the pads. When I ride though they get really hot and i can hear them rubbing while riding. It sucks and is annoying. We're going to try putting a sticky substance on the back of the pads because when the springs recoil to pull the pad off the disc it doesn't pull them all the way. If that doesn't work we're going to try to bleed the brakes. If that fails were going to do something to the pistons or whatever on the caliper. Like open them up more. I don't know my dad was talking about it. If anyone knows an easier way of fixing it let me know. We've been trying to figure out how to stop the rubbing for about a week now. We followed the clymer and my dad has a really good idea of what he's doing he just can't figure this one out.

Also we even tried to automatically align them by holding the brake lever down while everything was hooked up before tightening the bolts. My dad sais by holding the brake lever down have the pads clamp on the disc while tightening everything should have automatically aligned everything but it still rubs.

[rizp]

sorry, wierd. I'll just continue where I left off

on the next squeeze the lever is firm. The squeezing of the lever didn't do anything to affect the gripping. Before or after the pad is still rubbing. I'm turning the wheel by hand. I'm tempted to take it for a short roll around the block, but I don't want to screw up the brakes even more. also, I don't want to cook the pads. Any other ideas guys? I'm going to try literally taking it all apart again, but I doubt it's going to help. also, as far as tightening to "spec", I don't have a torque wrench, so I was just tightening to past "firm" and before "really dang tight"  

Regards,
Riz

[TR]

It's normal for the brake not to grip the disk when has been disassembled, so re-squeezing the lever several times fixes it, so don't worry about that, it happens because the bomb at the lever has a given capacity wich is exceded by the moved back pistons, so it has to be done in episodes...

I guess you disassembled the fork bridge in order to take off the fender, I'd suggest you to loosen the bridge, check the caliper alignment and then retighten the bridge once everything seems to be in place. Also you could put some caliper lube, I don't know any brand since I never heard before (before means before I messed with the bike brakes) about a caliper lube but I used some WD40, and since then my caliper pistons seem to be easy cleaning and lubricated.

Some pictures of the problem would be really helpful...

[Kerry]

rizp,

Is there any chance that the rotor got dinged or bent somewhere in the remove-wheel, get-tire-changed, reinstall-wheel sequence?

The manuals are pretty emphatic about not laying the wheel down on the rotor side.  Whether you did that or not, I wonder if the wheel may have fallen over at the dealership (or wherever).  If you have a long straightedge, try laying it across the rotor just in front of the fork (and parallel to it).  It should rest flat against the entire rotor surface on both the top and bottom segments.  Spin the wheel and do this check at several different spots.

The only other thing I can come up with is to fiddle with the bolt and bushing in this photo from the HOW TO: Front Rotor Replacement thread in the FAQ forum.  Maybe they were positioned/tightened too soon, or in the wrong location?

[Richard UK]

Don't let WD40 get anywhere near the brake caliper pistons - it's petroleum-based and will rot the piston seals  

[rizp]

ok, problem(s) solved.

I took it to a really fantastic motorcycle mechanic I found who helped me out, as one of the problems was certainly beyond anything I could fix.

1) I did strip the upper bolt holding the caliper. not just the bolt though, also the black piece of metal it threads into behind the fork. he had to helicoil that to fix it, but it solved the problem. He also used a silicone lube on the caliper and advised to never use anything petrolium based for the aforementioned rotting reason.

2) the scraping noise was coming from here (pic stolen from an eklipse post :mrgreen: )



He ground it *slightly* and totally removed the anti-rattle clip, then remounted the caliper, and cinched everything down. voila, no rattle, no more binding, a hint of brushing noise (normal) and problem solved. he tinkered around with it for quite a while, and only charged me $10 for the helicoil and $20 for the 1.5hrs we killed fiddling with things. I stood in the shop with him the whole time he was working, and he essentially gave a tutorial about different things as he took stuff apart and put it back together. cool beans. They also took a quick listen to the bike to see if the valves needed adjusting or carbs resynching, and they said I didn't need it. (but it would be around $60 for resynching if I still wanted them to do it.)

So the tire dilemma is over, I'm certainly wiser for it. I've certainly learned quite a bit.

denman: I loosened everything up and wriggled stuff around then retightened, and it made it MUCH better, good enought to get it to a shop.

Goat: you're totally right, running matched tires is waay nicer. (I used to only have a BT-45 in the back)  the bike is a lot more predictable, and it feels more stable in the corners. woo-hoo!

Kerry: Welcome back, man. All the speculation had me pretty freaked.

also of note: the bolt that Kerry is tightening in the pic he posted "this photo" is the LAST thing to be tightened. FYI for anyone new to the joy of front wheel removal.

Thanks for the help everyone, I really appreciate all the input. It's great having you folks to learn from.

Regards
Riz

[swhomrighausen]

Sorry to raise this one from the grave, but I am experiencing the same exact situation on my bike, as seen in the picture.  I understand that you can just grind that little nubbin piece down (and its companion piece - the one that is shiny but not circled in the photo), and it will solve the problem.  But what I'm wondering is why are those nubbins contacting the rotor in the first place?  In my case, I haven't even hooked up the caliper to the lever yet, but I noticed as soon as I installed the caliper, the wheel would not spin because it was caught on the pad guide.  I just rebuilt the caliper, so I'm wondering if it is because the pistons are pushed so far in right now that the brake pad isn't stopping the rotor from reaching the nubbins??? 

The bike was like this before I tore everything down to rebuild, but I assumed that it was rubbing because the axle spacer was missing.  Now, even with the spacer installed there still seems to be something going on.


-Scott

[ohgood]

sorry, wierd. I'll just continue where I left off

a short roll around the block

That's a very bad idea right now.

Stop, remove everything again and check the threads in your caliper for damage.

Spread the pads slightly bigger than the disc with a screwdriver. Too much and brake fluid will pee out of the master.

If you get help, the caliper should slide in as the wheel comes into place, and the axle goes through. Its a concerted effort, not for hammering.

There is no need to even consider modifying the caliper. It worked before, it will work again, once you're certain there is no damage to the caliper and its aligned.

[Twisted]

Um you are quoting a post from 7 years ago?

[swhomrighausen]

Perhaps I should have been a little more clear.  Rizp "solved" his problem on April 9th.  I suppose I could go the same route and just grind them down a little bit, but I'm concerned about how mine was coming into contact with the rotor in the first place.  As I said, this was happening when I purchased the bike.  I have now rebuilt the caliper, but it still rubs on the disc as it sits in the garage assembled dry.  I have not reconnected the brake line or put fluid in for fear of making a bad situation worse, but maybe thats what it takes to fix the issue?

Sorry for the confusion.  There was a lot of info in this post that described a nearly identical situation to mine, so I didn't want to start a whole new thread.

[shonole]

Perhaps I should have been a little more clear.  Rizp "solved" his problem on April 9th.  I suppose I could go the same route and just grind them down a little bit, but I'm concerned about how mine was coming into contact with the rotor in the first place.  As I said, this was happening when I purchased the bike.  I have now rebuilt the caliper, but it still rubs on the disc as it sits in the garage assembled dry.  I have not reconnected the brake line or put fluid in for fear of making a bad situation worse, but maybe thats what it takes to fix the issue?

Sorry for the confusion.  There was a lot of info in this post that described a nearly identical situation to mine, so I didn't want to start a whole new thread.

April 9th, 2005!!!!

I don't blame you though, I'd probably have done the same.  Sounds like you may have to start replacing some parts.   

[adidasguy]

Those nibs never touch the rotor. They hold the pad when calipers are open (i.e. brakes not on) so they are parallel.
The wrong brake pads were installed. There are 3 different types for the front.
Just buy a nearly new one and relpace it. $14.95 +p&h from PinwallCycle on ebay.

[BrianKD]

I just ran into the same problem today. After putting the front wheel back on, the pads were grinding and dragging against the disc. It didn't make sense at first, but then...

http://youtu.be/OBEkhVW7dGY

The problem wasn't the pads, caliper, or the rotor. It was the forks. I unknowingly rotated the forks inward as I put on the new fork brace. They were not bent or angled wrong, they were just twisted in. Because the brake caliper bolts to the bottom of the right fork, it too was angled in. That meant that the pads were striking the rotor at an angle instead of flush.

The fix was to unbolt everything except the four smaller bolts on the inside of the fork brace (the ones that hold the fender in place). That left the forks some wiggle room. We could put the wheel on and still be able to twist the forks into the right position as we slid the caliper on the rotor and bolted it down.

VICTORY!