put new tires on lots of drag on the front brakes

[mindfulloffire]

Hello,

I just took my wheels in to replace my tires. Got them back today and put them back on into place. I haven't tightened the axle bolts all the way down yet because there seems to be an incredible amount of brake drag in the front. not quite as bad in the back but the front is really noticeable drag. I did a search and none of the things that came up really seemed to touch this problem. Any help will be graciously accepted.




gs 700 E 85

[tkent02]

Push the brake pads apart a little, you can use two crossed screwdrivers if you are careful.

[bwringer]

You might have gotten one of the spacers in the wrong place, or the speedo drive is in the wrong place and dragging.

[mindfulloffire]

update:

it is definitely the left brake.

when I have it on with just the right brake it has just a tiny bit of brush w/ the pad.

once I put the right brake on it is very noticeable.

[Nessism]

How long has it been since the brake system was torn down and the crud cleaned out from the inside?

[mindfulloffire]

I have never done it, I picked up the bike 2 weeks ago. but I didn't have this problem before I changed the tires.

[Nessism]

Do what you want but if it were my bike I'd do a full system tear down and replace the rubber brake lines. The brake fluid absorbs water by design and chunkies form in the fluid. Only way to properly clean everything is with a tear down, flushing with fluid doesn't get it.

[1978GS1000custom]

did they take the rotors off when the did the tires? are they back on the right sides? are all the spacers installed in the right place? are the caliper slide bolts frozen or do they slide the calipers like they should? Nessism is right about a tear down and complete clean and inspection and replace any questionable parts. you know its always a good idea to take some pictures of it before you take it apart for a reference in reassembly. rebuilding the brake system is alot less expensive to repair before it lets you down. post some pics of the bike on here and some of these people will spot the problems right in the pictures. PICTURES ARE ALWAYS GOOD! its also great to know what kinda bike you have and where your located so update your user profile with that information (it helps everyone). one more, when those wheels were off the bike did you or anyone else apply the brakes? if so your gonna have to recompress the calipers before you install anything... cliff

[Killer2600]

Yeah Nessism is right, whenever you have a problem on these old bikes you should tear the bike apart and rebuild everything new, then if your problem still persists do it again, after that then try to fix it but don't ask how because outside of rebuilding we don't really fix individual problems. Hence why I'm looking for a brand new bike now to fix my old GS, really why rebuild it all new when I can skip the rebuild and buy new.

For those that can't tell there was quite a bit of sarcasm in that last paragraph but there is also some truth too. Almost every problem someone posts about how to fix there's usually at least one post along the lines of "you need to rebuild the whole thing before you try to fix it." Do you realize how expensive car/bike repair would be if the professionals did that to fix everything?

[salty_monk]

Ed's advice is good practice but I suspect you either:

a. put a spacer in the wrong place.
b. are putting the wheel in back to front (unlikely but possible if your shop put the tyre on the wrong way...).
c. touched the lever & reset the pads (inwards) in which case you now need to wind the pistons back into the caliper. Remove master cylinder lid & if you have them off the forks already you can use a G clamp to wind them back. Fit everything, pump the lever to bring them up to the rotors & check for drag/function carefully before riding.
Careful you don't push fluid out over the top of the master cylinder when you do this as it eats paint!

[81gs1100]

Rubbin

One thing that alot of people overlook when they R&R a front wheel is before you tighten the pinch bolt you should compress the forks a few time bouncing the front up and down so that the forks can parallel themselves. If one of your forks are being forced inward or outward you brakes will hang up as well.

Lossen your pinch bolt and work the forks and see if they relax, that should help in your rubbing issue.

[mindfulloffire]

thanks all for your help, I ended up cleaning out the left brake bled the brakes and gave the forks a few good bounces. all seems to be in order. thanks again.