Nobody likes a squealer

XJ650 Maxim - Front brake squeals. I forgot about this; I replaced the caliper last year and it squeals loudly when the front brake is used, like you can hear it 150+ feet away every time the front brake is applied. Squeeze it hard or lightly and it still squeals. The XJ1100 & XJ700 don't do this and this bike didn't until I put the new pads in last year.

Just took it for a ride and I must have turned the heads of 50 women but for the wrong reasons. OTOH, with my looks I'll take all the head turning I can get...

I remember I put some kind of blue anti squeal spray or some such in last year, in-between the pad and caliper. Not the answer.

Idears?

Thanks

 

What kind of pads are you using. Would sintered or semi-sintered pads be noisier than organic?

 

I have absolutely no recollection of which kind of pads they are, they were EBC pads but which version I don't know. Is there a anti-squeal piece that is supposed to be pulled off an old pad and put onto the new? I remember on the 1100 there was a diagonal shim that had to be transferred. I don't recall doing that with these pads and there was nothing in the package along with the pads to be attached to the back.

If... there is supposed to be a anti-squeal shim or whatever it might be called on the 650, I don't think there is one there. I don't see one on any of the blow-ups I've seen.

 

There is an anti-squeal/anti-rattle clip that goes in inside top of the rotor slot.

However, what you may try to do is to pull the pads back out and chamfer the rear edges so the the leading edge creats sort of a " > " that the rotor will be directed into. That will eliminate a lot of chatter.

Dave Fox

 

OK, i'll look to be sure the two clips are in there. I just pulled the pads out and it has 8L17 stenciled on the pad and SUMITOMO JB CA GG embossed in the metal. Looks like there many tiny pieces of copper or brass throughout the pad material. I'll file down the leading edge as you suggested.

These squeal even when I back the bike up to jockey it into position.

 

So the story goes like this... I look inside the caliper and do see the two clips although I wonder if the one that is to the back and vertical with the springy feelers is actually doing anything as it's not pressing against the pads with any force at all. Then again, perhaps those forces happen when there are motion forces occurring? No clue.

So looking at the wear marks on the back of the pads I see that on the back side there are two square nipple looking bumps that contact the lip of the piston and since the piston is hollow, the surface area of contact is very small. On the other pad the nipples are the same but there is nearly full contact with the rectangular nipples but not the majority of the pad (because the elevated rectangles prevent full contact). Why these pads do not make a full contact and have these nipples makes no sense to me.

So following the advice to chamfer, I did that with my dremel and I went one step more and went to Meineke and asked if they had any extra anti-vibration pads for their disc brakes. Sure enough they had dozens of extra pieces. They had adhesive on one side so I used tin snips to cut them to a long rectangle that covers both nipples on each pad and pressed them to the back of the pads. O'course I had to force the caliper open more to allow this extra thickness but with some wrangling everything fits in without any friction issues whatsoever. Took this time to replace the brake fluid.

It just started to rain so I didn't get to really give the brakes a workout but for a second there was a squeal and then it went away. Didn't hear any new squealing after that so between the chamfering and putting a piece of antichatter material for car pads on the back of both brake pads, it's apparently good to go.

If the demon returns I'll let you know.

Gary

 

Ok... So the followup is I still have a squeal. Maybe the pads are FUBAR? They are "new" with less than 1K on them but I've replaced pads before & never with this kind of noise. Maybe I need a different kind of pad? These have that bronze/brass material in the pad mix. They work great, if I were deaf they'd be perfect.

After the chamfer & applying the antiqsueal shims to the back of the pads it did quiet down. Now it's terrible again, 50 miles later.

Somethin' ain't right.