HELP! Rear brake pads wont fit

[kiroh]

MOT is due on my bike, so I've decided to change the brake pads. The rear one gives me a headache though - with the new pads on, the brake caliper won't fit. Seems like the left pad is 1-2 mil too thick.

Pads came from David Silver, and I don't think they've made a mistake with part numbers, etc.

Has anyone had this problem before?

Cheers

[Simon]

I take it you have the pistons fully in?

[nellychat]

I had exactly the same problem, everything fitted correctly, piston fully in and the pads wont fit.

Probably not the best solution but I took the pad to the bench grinder and shaved 1-2mm off the face. Fits a treat now

[kiroh]

I had exactly the same problem, everything fitted correctly, piston fully in and the pads wont fit.

Probably not the best solution but I took the pad to the bench grinder and shaved 1-2mm off the face. Fits a treat now

"Good" to hear you had a similar problem nellychat. Do you think it's to do with damaged calliper?

Don't have a bench grinder, so probably will use the old pad on one side and new one on the other. The problem is that there isn't much "padding" left on the old one.

[kiroh]

I take it you have the pistons fully in?

Yes indeed - piston fully in, and both pads fit over the rear disk, but the calliper wont slot all the way in, as it's misaligned 1-2 mil because of the left pad. (Does this make sense?)

[Simon]

sounds a bit crap. I changed my pads recently but didn't have any problem. Unfortunatly its one of those things you can't do without!

[robelst]

Is the slider pin that holds the caliper onto the bracket still ok? I suspect the exposed bottom bit has been corroded to a level where it cannot go any deeper, giving too little room for the new pads to fit. The pins is easy and cheap to replace, use a bit of copper paste or (better) silicon grease when putting it back together. Make sure the rubber bracket "boot" has no holes otherwise you may soon need another new pin.

You could ignore the cause of the problem and fix the symptoms by grinding down the pads (!!), but in a later stage the caliper will get more and more difficulty moving on the pin, putting more braking force on one side on the disc than the opposite side. This will most definitely warp the disc.

Good luck & cheers

Ps! I don't mean the pad-slider pin, but the slider pin between caliper and mount.

[nellychat]

Is the slider pin that holds the caliper onto the bracket still ok? I suspect the exposed bottom bit has been corroded to a level where it cannot go any deeper, giving too little room for the new pads to fit.

Thats sounds very likely, think I had better look at that!

[kiroh]

Thanks robelst - after changing the sliding pin the caliper slides far enough to the right to fit the pads. The old sliding pin was corroded and I got a new one + rubber sleeve from the local Honda dealer for a tenner.

Cheers

[robelst]

Glad to see you sorted the problem, it's always rewarding to share experiences with problems and other related misery

I only hope it didn't stop you riding your bike for the last 5 months (looking at the topic date)?