New squealing salmons on olde Record brakes
 

Well, I put the Kool Stop salmon pads on my old bike with 1973 Record calipers and both front a rear squeal loudly when I squeeze them hard, but they stop pretty well. Will the squealing go away once broken in? I read about toe in, but the holders are not adjustable. Are the pads unidirectional? Sanding etc? What to do? Thanks.

If you have the nerve stick a screw driver or anything similarly shaped and strong in the pad position and ever gently bend your calipers a bit to toe em, problem solved (well worked for me anyway).

I've sanded for toe in. You might also want to check if the pads hit the rim at the same time. If not, the spring on your caliper may have uneven tension on either side. I think there's an old method of pinging the spring to get it even, but I've never tried it. I've been successful, however, 'uncentering' the caliper a bit so the pads contact at the same time and with even force. It's worked for me. YMMV.

:eek:

You'd do that to a Record caliper?!?

I remove the brake pad and use an adjustable wrench on the flats. No marring that way.

There is likely a flat-spot on the anchor-bolt that goes through the fork up front, and the rear as well. This flat can be fit with a cone-wrench and the brake assembly can be rotated to equalize the distance of the calipers and pads. You won't have to resort to bending or banging on the brakes if it has this flat.

Park Tool also makes tools for this specific purpose - here's one:

http://www.parktool.com/products/det...=14&item=OBW-3

Me, too, and I've yet to snap a caliper.

Neal

I put duct tape on the jaws of my adjustable wrench to make sure I don't mar the caliper. I also remove the wheels so I don't scratch a rim.

Are there other pads that are not prone to squealing? The original Campagnolo pads never, ever squealed (had the bike since new). I have them on another bike with late 80's Athena brakes and they've never squealed either.

If wondering if a hack saw would help:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ZEUS-vintage-bra...3286.m20.l1116

Yeah, and they've never, ever stopped well either. Well, at least compared to salmon Koolstops/Scott-Mathausers.

My kool stop continentals squealed really really bad when they were new. After about 4-5 miles they stopped squealing and have been silent since.

Did you clean the rims? I use alcohol or acetone with a green scrubby pad?

I guess I'm the only one thats snapped a caliper arm.....but I still use a Crescent wrench!!!!

I've been thinking about the cold setting of the Record calipers and have yet to do it out of sheer fear (just kidding). I noticed that most pads old and new are grooved such that the pad face is divided into sections, presumably to prevent squealing. Has anybody tried to groove the salmon pads, and if so, how? I thought about putting the pads into a vise to hold them and then cutting some grooves with a hacksaw or a file. My concern would be the introduction of stress risers that could lead to tearing when shear forces are applied to the pad face.

I guess you tried nailpolish remover or alchol on the rims and sanded the pads before bending anything?

Had the same problem. I wedged a small shim of folded up plastic blister package material (milk jug plastic would work too) between my Koolstop pads & calipers to toe in the pads. Goodbye squeal.

Bend the brake...
 

Brake squeel is usually a product of the front of the brake pad touching the wheel rim last. If the front of the pad touches the rim first, the rim action pulls the rest of the brake pad surface to run parallel to the rim. If the rear of the pad touches first, the pad will pull forward then release, pull forward, release and continue to do so. This studdering is very rapid and causes that annoying squeel.

I use a 6" adjustable wrench adjusted to fit the brake caliper pad arm snugly. You can cushion the impact with a bit of aluminum foil if you wish and you might want to do so to reduce any chance of maring the surface of the caliper arm.

I have cold set (bent) lots of arms to achieve proper toe-in and without incident. Just do it and if it fails, your life will go on pretty much as it did before.

There was a time when I would sand of file the pad but no more. The bend till it is just right is the way I now choose to go. Just be careful. Bend in small increments. Install the pad and wheel to check results. If more is needed, bend a bit more but try to not over do it.

. . . with a bit of terry-cloth towel in the jaws, so that there's absolutely no chance of marring.