Brake clean = no brakes

[Guest]

Well I have been dealing with squealing brakes on my 850 for a while now and today I pulled the pads, scuffed with emory paper, and cleaned with brake clean. put it all backk together and now I have no squeal but my brakes are basically non existant. What gives? I have tons of pad left and now I feel like I need to buy new pads. UGH!!!!

[67fire]

Scuff the rotors with a roloc pad?

Eric

[Nessism]

Did you soak the pads in brake clean? If so, I suggest you take them off and scuff them with sandpaper to remove any possible contamination. Failing that, try riding around while dragging the front brake to see if they come back.

BTW, those round calipers suck as far as brake noise is concern.

[almarconi]

Your best bet to remove contaminates from brake friction material is plain old soap and water. Let it dry before putting back on the bike. Brake cleaner is good for getting grease, grime off of metal parts but not good on brake pads.

[lucabond]

You could take your belt sander lock it on turn it belt side up and gently hold the pad to the belt. You want to hold them level with the belt go slow and be careful not to sand them unevenly. Good luck

[doug g]

I pulled the pads and scuffed them with a scotchbrite pad. It had no effect what so ever. I will try some sand paper.

[spindle]

After you cleaned everything up did you lube all of the moving parts? This includes the shoulders of the bolts that hold the caliper on (under the rubber covers). The caliper has to "float" on these. You can buy a little packet of lube (man that just sounds bad) at auto parts stores for around a buck and it's plenty to do both the front and rear brakes. Another place that causes squealing is were the piston pushes on the back of the out board pad. A really thin coat of lube on the back of the pad fixes that one.

[argonsagas]

A concern is when removing the pads we sometimes push back the caliper to get more room. It is possible to cause damage by doing that, although it is unlikely.

You say there are tons of pad left, so it appears that the pads are fairly new, so the caliper cylinder should be free inside. Lubrication, as already suggested, is likely in order.

That leaves the pads.

If the ONLY thing you did was remove the pads, clean and scuff them, and put them directly back in place then there is little possibility of damage or misalignment but there is strong reason to question the type of fluid used to clean the pads.

Brake pads can and will absorb many petroleum-based fluids and that would show up as an absence of friction, or, even more likely, what you say is a near-absence of friction.

Brake-specific cleaners use different chemicals than other petroleum cleaners and-or solvents.

Brake-Kleen, for example, will spray on clear and run off looking filthy as it removes junk, but then its volatility becomes evident as it completely evaporates within seconds. Other types of cleaners solvents may not do this, and if they leave ANY residual petroleum behind that will create the problem mentioned.

You can clean them with another solvent, but this may not always get everything out.....absorption can be deep.

Heat works, as you can burn off any residual solvent and oils, but too much heat, or heat unevenly applied, may cause distortion and insufficient heat is of little value. Your wife may object to the treatment, but the best way to apply heat evenly is to bake the items in an oven.

Or...just replace the pads.

[Calvin Blackmore]

I soak Disc Brake pads em in laquer thinner for a few minutes
rinse em and be done

I spray off brake shoes with alcohol based brake cleaner
starter fluid also does a darned good job just beware the loopiness caused by the fumes.

you really need to douse the surface with an aerosol cause the first hit only distributes the oil and grim all over the lining.

takes a lot to disolve and wash away stuff.

mind you the cost for replacements is nothing when weighed against the danger of marginal brakes.

[doug g]

I pulled the pads off the calipers, cleaned them with brake clean and reinstalled them. Everything is fine other than it seems to have lost the friction needed for breaking. The brakes worked fine prior to this other than the squealing theat was very irritating. After I took the bike for a test ride and experienced how poor the brakes were I then took the pads off again and went over them with a scotch brite pad. They certainly looked better but did not work any better. The pads are old but still have plenty of life left in them. I really dont want to shell out the cash for new pads if it isnt necessary.

[67fire]

Some brands of Brake Cleaner, contain Kerosene and leave a residue. As mentioned earlier, use thinner to remove all residues. And allow then to dry.

Eric

[Calvin Blackmore]

I pulled the pads off the calipers, cleaned them with brake clean and reinstalled them. Everything is fine other than it seems to have lost the friction needed for breaking. The brakes worked fine prior to this other than the squealing theat was very irritating. After I took the bike for a test ride and experienced how poor the brakes were I then took the pads off again and went over them with a scotch brite pad. They certainly looked better but did not work any better. The pads are old but still have plenty of life left in them. I really dont want to shell out the cash for new pads if it isnt necessary.

are you sure you reinserted them int he same positions?
my disc brake pads in my bike always wear on an angle
if they were inserted differiently the wear pattern would be different and they would have to seat befor getting the full surface fo the pad in contact with the disc.

[doug g]

Did the pads one at a time so they in the same way they came out and on top of that they can only go in one way. The only thing that could have been done is switch from one caliper to the other and that didn't happen.

[argonsagas]

Brake clean - specific products generally do not have any adverse or long lasting effect on friction properties. As long as your pads and rotors are clean and as long as pads properly installed and caliper piston free and caliper able to 'slide' I would think that...in a careful manner....ie not in traffic or on curvy roads....get out there and do several stops....moderate braking (all ya got right now? ) from speeds of say 60 down to 10 or so. Try that a few times allowing a minute or so between cycles. Thought is that any solvents will evaporate. I owned a brake specialty shop for 14 plus years. Various brake cleaners were used to wipe away finger prints on drums and rotors. pads and shoes as well. Cannot recall ever having a problem.

Just my 2 cents.

I have done that myself, but do not recommend 60 mph runs to anyone else simply because the unexpected is just that and having no brakes at that speed exposes you to unnecessary risk if anything unexpected should occur.

You can build up heat at slower speeds by merely squeezing and holding the lever while rolling the bike across a large, empty, parking lot for several minutes.

[Nessism]

To each his own. I figure Doug G has a modicum of common sense and will figure it out. Anyway, how would you recommend one go about breaking in a new set of brake pads? Or a new tire?

As stated earlier, try dragging the brake while riding the bike. No need for high speed to heat up the brakes.