at wit's end

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crassius

crassius

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2012
4,032
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USA
built a nice huffy fresno with the 12ga spokes

front brakes squeal VERY loudly

trued wheel & cleaned rim with carb cleaner - no improvement

toed in the pads - no improvement

toed out the pads - no improvement

swapped pads from silent rear wheel - no improvement

replaced pads with new by diff manufacturer - no improvement

re-trued wheel and turned on stand for a while while sanding rim and installed wheel to run in reverse direction - no improvement

drove for over a mile dragging brakes to see if pads would wear in, POed my neighbors, but - no improvement

What am I missing here?
 
Davezilla

Davezilla

New Member
Mar 15, 2014
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San Antonio Texas
What type of brake calipers are you using? It could be the calipers or V brake arms chattering causing the squeel... I would look at the brake arms and either replace with something more rigid or get creative with some RTV in places it can't be seen to help dampen out that vibration or resonance that's causing the squeal. Also, if it's a V brake setup you might just need to swap out the plastic bushings and those teflon washers etc...
 
crassius

crassius

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2012
4,032
158
63
USA
forgot to mention I sanded all pads - will look more closely at arms & maybe try rear arms on front
 
crassius

crassius

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2012
4,032
158
63
USA
crazy may be where I'm going with this soon

noticed arms were loose & could wiggle even when brake was grabbed tight - took em off & found the brass tubes were not set out enough to take up slack between spring housing & arm - used a drift to reseat tube in arm until with arm installed there was a slight drag when moved (no wiggle even when released)

no improvement again

have another used set of black arms that were scratched up - painted and will try with them when they dry tomorrow

not sure I'll try dirt, as I have mostly sand & damp soil here, but I have a pair of new chrome arms that I may try (and then have to buy matching for rear)

tomorrow will be fifth day working on this bike that I only hope to make $100 on : (
 
crassius

crassius

Well-Known Member
Sep 30, 2012
4,032
158
63
USA
swapped rear arms to front while waiting for paint to dry - no improvement

paint dried (& looks like painted by old people) - arms are about 4mm thicker at pad mount point (had to remove the large alignment spacer because pad posts are way too short to make that extra 4mm mount) - brakes are silent now : )

arms are so much shorter that cable drags on fender with fender mount as low as possible & a bit of extra bend applied to fender, but they return OK & work well so good enough

will save these china arms for possible use on rear of something since they were silent there

may stop buying boxed bikes so I can listen to brakes at the store (altho I was about to order 3 magna bikes over inet today)
 
Davezilla

Davezilla

New Member
Mar 15, 2014
2,705
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0
San Antonio Texas
That's what I was thinking since a lot of the arms are now being made from stamped steel so they can vibrate and make noise, all my bikes that have the rigid alloy arms brake quietly all the time e but some of the newer ones that came with the stamped steel arms not only squeal but also have a more spongy feel to them since they also flex a little when brakes are applied hard. The alloy arms are more rigid so they have a better feel to them as well.
I've since switched to hydraulic disc brakes up front since I can get them cheap enough, these are a lot stronger than the mechanical disc brakes and always quiet. The last hydraulic caliper and lever setup costed me just over 30 on ebay and the extra stopping power is well worth it so I try to find bikes that already have a front disc brake if I can, but I've had a a lot better luck with the V brakes that have the more rigid alloy arms, they're quiet, they don't wear out the pads as quickly, and they will flip the bike if pulled on too hard...
 
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