Brake Squeal?
 

After changing out my flat rear tire today, now I have terrible squeal from the rear brakes. I used degreaser on the wheel, thinking I got a bunch of grease on the rim, causing squeal. I also cleaned the brake pads, but that didn't help much. Is there an easy way to correct this?

Yes, toe the pads in.

Check your toe in.

If it was fine before you probably just got your wheel a bit misaligned when you put it back on.

They say to use a buisness card under the pad to do it easily.

^^^
yup try that one, put a shim or a card under one side of the pad to get the angle.

another thing you can do is get a file and rough up the pads. use a file, dont just srape the pads on the ground that doesnt work well

If you have cantilever, side pull or center pull brakes try the toe in.

If you have linear pull brakes, make sure the pad is flat against the rim.

DON'T USE DEGREASER ON YOU'RE RIMS! Most degreasers leave a filmy residue on the rim or rotor and sometimes cause brake squeal, but always cause the braking to be less powerful.

Try using rubbing alcohol on the pads and rim/rotor, then make sure and dry the components thoroughly. This will clean the degreaser and in a lot of cases diminish the squealing, however there are times (especially with cantilever brakes) when the squealing is an indicator that you're brakes are working great!

Just on the off chance that the OP has never heard of the term 'toe in'...

http://ecadfael.fu8.com/pad_toe_line.jpg

Toe in means that the end in the direction of travel of the brake pad meets the rim first, and you can set this with the cam washer behind the bolt that holds the actual pad to the brake arm. The front of the pad should be about 2 or 3mm closer to the rim than the back of the pad (yes I know this is a large gap... but you can then bring it in with the adjustment screw on the brake lever) . As was mentioned above, holding a credit card or even a coin to the rim under the back of the brake will help with this.

Now this is champion illustration! Thanks! I also have squeling brear brakes.

Try cleaning your brake pads w/ degreaser; if toeing the pads in or cleaning the pads doesn't work, new brake pads is the only other solution.

trivia: I don't know why, but my front brake pads need to be toed *out* to stop squealing.