Front brake rub

I just put new tires on and went to reinstall my front caliper and it was very tight going on, I was able to get it on but it seems as if its too tight causing the front wheel to not spin very freely. I cant compare to before as this was a barn find that Im fixing up and didnt run.

Without caliper


With caliper


Any tips on how to solve this?

 

Have you rebuilt the front brake system?

Also the front wheel should spin more freely than it does in the no-caliper video.
Did you clean and repack the wheel bearings, or fit new ones?

 

speedo hub installed correctly?
do you have the washer under the axle nut they work as spacers.

did you tighten the pinch bolt on right side axel last after axle was tightened?

 

Thanks for the replies!

Just had new tires put on the wheels at a shop and asked them to check the bearings. They said the wheel bearings were great so I did not do anything to them. Should I grease it up? Any other tips or tricks K Moe?

Yes the speedo hub is in correctly with the tabs lining up, the washer under the axle castle nut is there, and I did tighten the pinch bolt last.

I have not rebuilt the brakes, was going to start there tomorrow.

Lastly, I was using my neighbors torque wrench to the spec in the manual however, I was cranking on it for a good while and I couldn't get it tight enough for the wrench click indicating the torque, so Im thinking the torque wrench isn't working properly. Unless the axle nut needs to be SUPER slammed tight.

 

Set the torque wrench to a low setting. . . . Put it on a fastener (lug nut, building lag bolt, etc) and see if she clicks for you. I find it best to make sure the wrench is freed up prior to use, or use a beam styled one.

Get to that front brake rebuilt and put braided stainless steel lines on it.

 

Were you able to push the pads back in the caliper? Could be there is crud built up on the piston preventing this. In which case a caliper rebuild is in order

 

Very good chance front caliper needs to have seals replaced , there are 2 seals in each caliper a dust seal on outside and a seal inside of caliper. The piston needs removed , you can drive them out with air from a compressor and is it does not work a grease gun through the fitting for the "B" nut will force it out, kinda messy and you have to clean out the grease . DO NOT use channel locks or vise grips to remove piston, and inspect piston for pitting and corrosion on inside of caliper. I had one caliper that was dragging on my Seca , the seals were very hard and I think they were original , Pistons were in good shape , had a little corrosion cleaned up with a dremel brass wire brush( hint only use brass it is a soft metal and wont dig into surface) ( This also applies to hammers I have 3 you can pound all day on bolts it will not mushroom end of a steel bolt ) Good luck .

 

Bad seals on my front brake piston and "gunk" in the brake fluid from old lines contributed to the pads sticking and dragging on my front caliper.

As stated, you probably need new brake lines, a flush/bleed with new brake fluid, and at the very least, clean up the piston, likely need to replace seals.

I also agree, the video of the wheel without the brake doesn't spin very freely.

 

So I started today with trying to find why the wheel wouldn't spin very freely. The front left fork seal had gone (gunk and oil dripped all down the forks) so I started with the left side and cleaned up the speedo and left side. Fixed the problem and now the wheel spins like a champ. Still need to rebuild caliper and clean that up!

 

You need to rebuild the forks once a seal starts leaking it is time to rebuild . New seals are cheap fork oil about 15$ a quart only need 1 , some beer and an afternoon . Oil leaking from a fork seal will ruin brake pads quick and inhibit braking . This can also cause handling problems in oil qty lower in the fork. I just rebuilt mine , the Seca forks in my oppion are easy to rebuild, I've done a few other forks before and I don't mind these.

 

I worked top down on the front end in terms of cleaning up and rebuilding. Did the fork seals on both sides earlier this week and like you said it was really simple. Now Im hoping the front caliper is just as easy!

 

Not very difficult. Try this - remove caliper from rotor, pop the top off MC (keep an eye on the fluid level), hold caliper over bucket with a rag wrapped around caliper (for any 'overspray'), squeeze brake lever, let the brake fluid push the caliper out. You probably will need to add extra fluid to the MC before the piston comes all the way out.

 

Why you need to rebuild your caliper and M/C w/pics

Why You NEED TO REPLACE Original brake lines w/pics

 

Awesome, thank you for the guidance!