Noodle Help

[WillyWill]

Newbee here. After tune up, brought bike home, inserted front wheel and cannot for the life of me get the cable reinserted into the noodle (please excuse me if my wording wrong). It seems like cable just isn't long enough. I squeeze the vee brake mechanism together, and that noodle will not seat. I know there is a hex adjuster bolt, but it is on so tight, I cannot budge it to get a bit of purchase in the cable. Tried moving adjuster at handle bar; still cannot get that blasted thing inserted.

Am attaching document to explain things a bit better.

If this post should be in a different forum, please advise.

 

[mjr]

Yeah, that bit at the lever end needs to be in the middle of the adjuster assembly. At the moment, it's misaligned so putting extra pull on the brake and causing several serious problems. It's like someone is holding the lever on all the time.

I think your best option is undoing that stubborn hex bolt holding the cable clamp on the brake arm (it's going to have to be undone one day!), unhooking the noodle (which is the angled pipe at the brake end), putting the cable outer into the lever correctly (if you twiddle the collar a quarter turn, it should stop the cable falling out again in a repeat), rehooking the noodle and then setting the brake cable up again as described on https://www.sheldonbrown.com/canti-direct.html

 

[fossyant]

Undo the cable clamp on the calliper if you can't get the noodle connected, then re-clamp the cable and adjust the distance of the pads. Fairly simple.

 

[mjr]

Undo the cable clamp on the calliper if you can't get the noodle connected, then re-clamp the cable and adjust the distance of the pads. Fairly simple.

You may like to look at the pictures. It's the cable outer not going into the lever correctly, not the noodle into the brake arm.

Same basic solution, though.

 

[WillyWill]

Yeah, that bit at the lever end needs to be in the middle of the adjuster assembly. At the moment, it's misaligned so putting extra pull on the brake and causing several serious problems. It's like someone is holding the lever on all the time.

I think your best option is undoing that stubborn hex bolt holding the cable clamp on the brake arm (it's going to have to be undone one day!), unhooking the noodle (which is the angled pipe at the brake end), putting the cable outer into the lever correctly (if you twiddle the collar a quarter turn, it should stop the cable falling out again in a repeat), rehooking the noodle and then setting the brake cable up again as described on https://www.sheldonbrown.com/canti-direct.html

Thank you for your response. I'm afraid of stripping that hex bolt (it's really tightened on there), but shall keep trying.
Have a great day.

 

[WillyWill]

Oops. Sorry about that. I "knew" what I meant; just didn't word it properly.

 

[WillyWill]

Undo the cable clamp on the calliper if you can't get the noodle connected, then re-clamp the cable and adjust the distance of the pads. Fairly simple.

Looks like I'm going to have to keep working at that hex bolt. Thanks for your reply.

 

[roadrash]

@WillyWill , where abouts are you.

 

[WillyWill]

@WillyWill , where abouts are you.

South eastern ontario

 

[roadrash]

South eastern ontario

ahhh , a little bit too far then

 

[Ian H]

You'll have to unhook the noodle to fit the cable at the lever. Once that is done, if you can't refit the noodle, or the brakes are too tight, the only alternative is to release the cable clamp on the V-brake.

 

[WillyWill]

Well, thanks for the thought.
Breakthrough: Last night with sheer determination, held breath, a bit of cursing and praying, I got that hex bolt loosened. Whoo hooo!
Felt so proud of myself. I had earlier marked the cable so I would know where to return it to after getting that noodle inserted. So, I loosened the cable slightly, got the noodle inserted properly; pulled the cable back to where it was before I loosened the hex bolt, and retightened the hex bolt.

And now, the brake pads are both sitting against the rim. Needless to say, squeezing the brake lever does nothing. grrrrrrrrrr
The cable is inside the adjuster now - not like it was in the pdf I attached to my original post.

You know, I started out with bikes that only braked when you peddled backwards. I am beginning to think that is the only bike I ever should have been allowed to own.

Seriously, though, I have never had an issue like this before. Good luck, no doubt. I can't believe this. When I took my bike to the shop for tune up, I am sure it left the shop properly set up. It's me muddling around that has caused this. I take full responsibility, but Man, it is so frustrating. I live in the country; the nearest bike shop is 45 minutes away and due to Covid, everything is backlogged. I had to wait 4 weeks just for the tune up; and there's no point loading the bike in my car (cuz' I have to remove the front wheel to get it to fit) and driving back to the city.

Woe is me! LOL

 

[WillyWill]

Undo the cable clamp on the calliper if you can't get the noodle connected, then re-clamp the cable and adjust the distance of the pads. Fairly simple.

Simple for YOU perhaps! This ole' gal finds it anything but. Not even sure where to begin "adjusting the distance" and since I finally did get that blasted hex bolt loosened, the noodle inserted, the cable fed through at the adjuster near brake handle, I now am faced with two brake pads tight against the rim. ugggghhhh

 

[Ian H]

Just loosen the clamp, allow a bit more slack in the cable, and retighten.

 

[DCBassman]

Just loosen the clamp, allow a bit more slack in the cable, and retighten.

This. If the brakes are then too loose, use the adjuster on the lever to bring it back. You are ideally aiming to have the lever approximately parallel to the bars when the brake is engaged. The adjuster has two parts, a barrel and a lock ring. Unscrew the barrel a turn or two and see how that feels. When correct, turn the lockring back against the lever housing. Voila!