Not enough tension in front calliper brake spring?

jameses

Since it's starting to look like summer, I thought I would give my nice bike a bit of a spring clean today. Having some problems with the front brake (DA7800), though.

Whereas the rear brake will open as far as it can when the cable isn't attached, the front brake only opens about half way by itself, and is loose from that point. It also doesn't 'spring' open as it should when the arms released (after being pushed together into the braking position). It feels like there isn't enough tension in the spring, or perhaps it has slipped somewhere, but visually it appers the same as the rear calliper.

Any idea what may be causing this? And how to fix it?

Cheers for any help!

on-yer-bike

Could just be dirt. Clean it and spray liberally with WD40 on all the pivots and where the bottom of the spring passes through the litle black bush.

keezx

Take the brake apart, clean all parts and put it together with grease on the pivot points.
Do not tighten the pivot points too much, the arms should move without significant resistance.

frisbee

You can flip the plastic bush around to add a little more tension to the spring but cleaning it up and lubricating it is the main thing.

Security torx bit over the end of the spring makes popping the spring back into place a lot easier.

jameses

Clean and lube was the first thing I tried, but no joy. There's no resistance in the arm movement so it's not the pivot points being over-tightened, they just don't spring back to where they should be. I'll have a look at the plastic bush, see if flipping that does the trick.

Thanks for the suggestions, please keep them coming!

markwb79

JamesEs wrote:

Clean and lube was the first thing I tried, but no joy. There's no resistance in the arm movement so it's not the pivot points being over-tightened, they just don't spring back to where they should be. I'll have a look at the plastic bush, see if flipping that does the trick.

Thanks for the suggestions, please keep them coming!

I am having exactly the same issue.

Been stripped and cleaned lots of times, but with no joy