Help with brakes

[Chappy]

Hi everyone I am still quite new to this so as the title says I need some help with my rear V-brakes as you can see by the pictures the are lent over to the left and not straight so they keep rubbing on the rim. Excuse the naff pictures camera is not very good, as you can see the left brake is rubbing but the right side is no where near the rim. Has anyone got any ideas how to correct this.

Thanx

 

[skwerl]

there's a small allen bolt in the side of the brake which lets you adjust the centring

 

[Chappy]

do you mean the pad itself

 

[Gary D]

do you mean the pad itself

No. They mean the small screw about 3mm diameter that is at right angles to the main pivot bolt at the end of each of the arms. If you look at the third one of your pictures, it is the little black screw you can see in the botton right of the pic.

There is one of these each side and they control the spring tension that returns the arm to its rest position after you let go of the brakes after applying them.

What you will need to do is screw one side in and one side out to centre the arms. I think it should be that the arm that is closer to the rim should have more tension on it therefore screw the screw in clockwise and then do the opposite on the other side.

Hope that helps.

Gary.

 

[Gary D]

Sorry, one other thing to check is that the cable is running freely. If the cable is dry, or has got corrosion inside the outer casing, then there may not be enough spring tension to return the arms to their proper positions anyway so all the adjustments will be in vain.

If that is the case, you will have to try and clean and lubricate the cable with some grease.

Gary.

 

[Chappy]

Cheers Guys

 

[k-dog]

It's nothing to do with the cable or the arms of the brakes - it's just about the springs to keep them an even distance from the rim.

The little screw tightens the spring so forces that arm further away from the pad - and like Gary D said if you do the opposite on the other side that does the same.

Your screws are about the same amount unthreaded on each side so you need to tighten the spring on the looser side (the side that has the arm closest to the rim). Just pop the spring out from behind the brake arm and bend it a little more.

Then you can fine tune it by adjusting the screws - you really want them approximately equal and about halfway unscrewed too so you can adjust them either way.

Having decent tension on the screws gives you a really nice positive braking action too.

 

[spandex]

Mr Dog

when you know what is the out lining problem then tell them how to fix it!!!

As i said in my post in beginners it wheel is out which is nocking out the brakes that is the problem.

 

[k-dog]

Was that supposed to be English?

The wheel looks perfectly straight to me - but the brakes are at an angle. You can see that pretty clearly in the first picture - the arms are clearly at quite a severe angle when they should be fairly symmetrical.

 

[Chappy]

I will give you an update later tommorrow im going to try and bend the spring a bit more see if it helps.