Avid Caliper mounting

gloomyandy

Hi,
on my on-one inbred 29er based touring bike I have Avid Elixir brakes. These use the cup/cone type washers to adjust the caliper position. I've had to realign the brake caliper a couple of times to avoid the pads catching and at some point in the process I have managed to split some of the washers (which seem to be made out of a very soft material). I can get a set of bolts/washers, but is there a better way to mount these brakes? If not what is the max torque I should be using to avoid having the same problem again? Is there any sort of technique to getting the brakes aligned and avoiding the pads catching?

Thanks

Andy

Chunkers1980

Hope and tight enough.

bruce225

With mine in the end I bought a 1mm hub spacer made a massive difference and now can set up in 30secs.

Torque I found on the net was 10nm.

gloomyandy

What does the hub spacer do?

bruce225

I found with my Avids i couldn't get the caliper to move enough towards the disc there was not enough adjustment left and was always slightly rubbing the pad.

So just putting a 1mm spacer between the hub and the disc brought the disc closer to the caliper allowing me a bit more adjustment and can now set by eye and no more rubbing and completely silent

It might not help you depending what problems you have setting yours up.

The Rookie

A common problem with using the tri-align washer is doing one bolt up first, then the other, you have to nip them up alternately as you go so the calliper doesn't twist due to the under bolt head friction.

The washers are the same as those used for V-brake pads, a set for Wilkinsons supermarket is only a couple of quid.

Not sure how on earth you managed to split one!

gloomyandy

Oh I've managed to split more than one! The part that splits is the "cup" style washer which seems to me made out of something pretty soft (white metal?) at least the ones I have. Perhaps there are others that are made of stronger stuff! I don't think I applied that much force to them (around 5Nm using a torque wrench).

Thanks for the explanation about the hub spacer. As you say I don't think that is my problem, but I'll file it away just in case thanks!

dgunthor

i normally do the bolts up loose, apply the brake and tighten each in turn with the brake applied. technically, the caliper should now be centered on the disc (assuming the pistons are even and the pads too). generally seems to work pretty well

coulddobetter

5 nm with an uncalibrated torque wrench is obviously too tight. There's a lot to be said for feel and common sense.

gloomyandy

And how do you know the wrench is not calibrated? Anyway after some further digging, Park tools recommends 40-60inch pounds (4.5-6.7Nm), the user manual from Avid (which I've finally managed to locate), shows the torque range to be 5Nm to 7Nm, so I was at the low end of this range. The user guide is here: https://sram-cdn-pull-zone-gsdesign.net ... .indd_.pdf. Having done a little more searching it seems I'm not the only one that has had this problem, there are threads on a number of forums describing the same problem.
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic ... to-go-them
http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic ... sher-query
http://forums.mtbr.com/sram/anyone-else ... 28550.html

bruce225

On the DB3 which I have the manual shows up to 10nm and they still use the same washer type fitment so I wouldn't have thought you would have tightened much more than that even with a uncalibrated torque wrench.

https://sram-cdn-pull-zone-gsdesign.netdna-ssl.com/cdn/farfuture/QANfhilB0vUm5b1HjrOa84BmqC2siCaEr4VRJxTZeZc/mtime:1428004759/sites/default/files/techdocs/95-5018-009-000_rev_a_2015_mtb_brake_shifters.pdf

cooldad

coulddobetter wrote:

There's a lot to be said for feel and common sense.

coulddobetter

In other words you are not the only one who tightens things to the point of destruction !