I squeezed the brake with the wheel out!

[heinze]

Hey guys, I hope you can help me out. I have Hayes hydraulic disc brakes, and I did the ultimate No No...I squeezed the brake with the wheel out. I tried pushing the calipers apart, then resetting the brake with the wheel in, but I am still getting a little bit of rub on the rotor....any suggestions besides bleeing the lines? Thanks for all the help.

Nick

[biking_stickman]

Hey guys, I hope you can help me out. I have Hayes hydraulic disc brakes, and I did the ultimate No No...I squeezed the brake with the wheel out. I tried pushing the calipers apart, then resetting the brake with the wheel in, but I am still getting a little bit of rub on the rotor....any suggestions besides bleeing the lines? Thanks for all the help.

Nick

Use a deck of old playing cards...

Put a few cards in the gap between the pad and rotor. Now, slide in one card at a time. This will slowly push the pads back.

You can also try this with the wheel out (it is a bit easier) but this doesn't seem to work as well.

Matt

[heinze]

I was successful at getting the pads back a bit, but I am still getting a little bit of rub. Nothing significant enough to affect the performance, but it is annoying. I don't think the disc itself is bent....any other suggestions?

[Magic]

Nick, did you make sure that the piston's were pushed back in? You will have to re-set the centering of the caliper also. You will need a 10mm. wrench to push the pistons back where they belong.

[heinze]

Um....what?

[ppgc]

There should be a perm-link to the Park Tool help site. :)

http://www.parktool.com/repair/readhowto.asp?id=138

-pete

[soupboy]

Remove your pads. Place the largest allen key that will slide freely through the caliper body through the caliper. Grab each end, make sure the key is flush with the piston face, pull/push each piston flush with caliper body. Install pads. Get jiggy.

Unless your pads were way off-center to start with you shouldn't need to re-center (at least I never have).

[Ala Carte]

Its a pretty easy fix. You should have no reason to bleed your brakes, unless you see oil seeping somewhere. Like above post, I would remove pads, then use a 10mm box wrench and stick the circle side around the brake pad post and push caliper in. Do the same on the other side, reinstall pads, and you should be good. And if that doesn't work, go buy some Avid mechanical discs and you'll never have this problem again.

[mtnbykr]

And if that doesn't work, go buy some Avid mechanical discs and you'll never have this problem again.

you got that right...

kl

[heinze]

Thanks for all the help. THe playing cards worked well, but there was still some rubbing, so I took it in. Turns out the whole brake, pads and all needs to be moved over a few millimeters. Seems like it wasn't properly tuned when I bought it....considering I have had brake problems and the crank broke (due to a loose bolt) on it's second day on the trail.....(I bought the bike 3 weeks ago) XXXX XXXX doesn't seems to do a very good job at tuning bikes. I feel they took advantage of my inexperience.

[Ala Carte]

Seems like it wasn't properly tuned when I bought it....considering I have had brake problems and the crank broke (due to a loose bolt) on it's second day on the trail.....(I bought the bike 3 weeks ago) XXXX XXXX doesn't seems to do a very good job at tuning bikes. I feel they took advantage of my inexperience.
It's good you got your bike running, too bad about the shop not building the bike right. Most of the BIG shops have high schoolers building their bikes. Which wouldn't be so bad if they were trained correctly, most aren't. Try going to small one store operation next, you'll be much happier.