Tektro mini V brakes seized

[Dolorous Edd]

Only 6 months old, but the Tektro mini V brakes on my bike - front and rear - have seized. When I try to move the arms with the noodle disconnected, they are extremely stiff - far too stiff to spring back after applying the brakes. I admit I am not the most fastidious when it comes to cleaning, but I took the front set off, soaked them in white spirit and got them as clean as I could - no change.

Any advice please? (I am quite running mini Vs with STI levers)

 

[cyberknight]

i had to sort out a seized set of v brakes recently , i had to sand down the noodle it sits on and the hole in the v arm that slots onto it to remove corrosion , then lube to get it to work .

 

[Paulus]

Take them off, clean the pivots with fine grade wire wool. Then clean the inside of the calipers, and the washers and the springs. Put a thin smear of grease on the pivots and resemble, making sure the springs are correctly seated in the tension holes in the pivots.

 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

The problem and solution depends on what quality of Tektro mini-Vs you have.

The cheapest use brass bushes running directly on the brazed-on pivots. If so, Paulus has the right solution.

The next level (e.g. CX-5) up have sleeves that fit over the braze-ons (and secure the brake springs) and the arms then pivot on those sleeves. If those sleeves rust, then you have little chance of freeing them up long-term as it is very difficult to disassemble the arm/ sleeve assembly. The best you can do is flush them out, try to get relative movement and drip in some lubricant. The corrosion is likely to worsen though.

TRPs CX-8.4 use SS sleeves and should be comparatively free of corrosion. We have a few sets of those here but I will wait another winter before giving a long-term verdict.

 

[fossyant]

Never had an issue, remove from frame, clean up, and refit (apply grease)

 

[Dolorous Edd]

Thanks all. I believe they are Tektro RX-6. On all 4 arms, the sleeve of the arm appears to move freely on the braze on pivot. It is the two parts of the arm that won't move against each other. In the (web) image below, it is the silver ring with the little pin that sticks into the tension hole, that will not move against the rest of the brake arm. It seems very odd that all 4 arms seem to have been affected at more or less the same time, and so soon. I am not the best at cleaning, but normally I manage to make bits last a reasonable time.