Brakes out or too tight on the skewers?

[Monsieur Remings]

Have just fixed a puncture on rear wheel and replaced the wheel. One of the brake pads seems a bit close to one of the pads so loosened the skewers a bit and it now seems okay and dead central. Does this sound right or should I tighten the skewer back up and look to see if the brake pads are not central?

Thanks

 

[mickle]

There are two possible causes; either the wheel has been re-installed on the piss or you've knocked the brake.

nb. If the rim/ block gap changes as you tighten the skewer its a sign that the drop-outs are on the piss and require urgent alignment. Non straight drop-outs will wreck your rear axle.

 

[Monsieur Remings]

When you say on the piss I suppose you mean badly?

How do I go about realigning the dropouts, and if I get the LBS to do it (and they've just serviced it????) is it an expensive job?

 

[Globalti]

What he means (I think) was that you didn't take care to set the axle properly in the bottoms of the dropouts before tightening the QR. This is easier to get right with the bike upside-down and harder with the bike upright unless you take care to ensure the wheel isn't cock-eyed as you tighten the QR.

If doing the QR up really tight is forcing the wheel out of alignment, it's possible that a dropout is mis-aligned, which a decent bike mechanic ought to be able to sort for the price of a packet of biscuits and a polite "please", especially if you buy other goods from his shop from time to time.

Even more likely though is that the brakes have got moved over (road bike) and just need re-centring, or one of the pull-off springs is weaker on one side and needs tensioning with the little screw on the brake arm (MTB).

 

[Monsieur Remings]

Thanks folks, all sorted now thanks to that advice.