kmulder

Here's the scenario: This is the rear brake on my bike, a Shimano Exage. If I am sitting on my bike, pull the brake lever, and then rock back and forth, the brake arms will move back and forth quite a bit.

Looking at the brake, it is obvious that the arms are not tight together. However, I cannot figure out how to tighten the arms together.

If I try tightening the nut seen in the top of the photo, the whole bolt rotates. I can loosen the nut seen in the bottom of the photo, but when tightening again, it "bottoms out" when it hits the spring holder in front of it, and I cannot tighten it anymore.

Any ideas?

lusterwand

Your Exage brakes are side-pull style not cantilever.
Is the front caliper also Exage, if so, compare the washers between the arms, to the front arms washer set up. Are they the same?
Assuming of course, the fronts are not also "wonky".... the tolerance does look a little loose between the arms.

AndrewP

You are worrying over a non-problem. Provided the shoes move in towards the rim together and move out again your brakes are fine.

Noam Zane

You are missing a nut. There should be two, one to adjust and that top one to lock in that adjustment.

LWaB

Wrong, you are thinking of the Dia-Compe style brake bolt where the spring carrier has a threaded stud front and back.

That particular Shimano brake has the bolt head at the front and the spring carrier and the locknut behind it are threaded on. Hold the bolt head in a vise, unlock the locknut from the spring carrier and tighten the spring carrier to almost eliminate play in the brake arms. Then tighten the lock nut against the spring carrier. If you've done everything right, there will be virtually no play. if not, try again.

kmulder

The brake DID work....however, while braking, both arms would move forwards and backwards (relative to the bike) and this concerned me. It seemed like under extreme braking, the arms might snap off.

I did figure out how to fix them. The nut seen on the very bottom of the photo did come off. It was just very stuck. The "nut" on the very top is actually part of the main bolt. With the bottom nut off, I was able to tighten (a lot!) the main bolt into the nut you see which is holding the spring. The arms came together nicely and tightly again. I replaced the bottom nut, and all is good now The brake is solid.

Gonzo Bob

Some amount of movement is normal with all brakes as the calipers do flex. Even the beefiest short reach calipers flex. The Shimano Exage flex even more since they are medium reach and aren't all that beefy (I have a pair on my commuter).

Any movement due to play or looseness of the calipers on the brake bolt should be eliminated, but it sounds like you have done this already. :thumbs: