Lamplight

I got some Centaur calipers from my LBS along with a bunch of other components from the group for a good price, but the calipers didn't have any pads. So the owner ordered a full set of Centaur pads for me for free. Now all of the pictures I find online show the brakes as having the pads with little allen head bolts, but mine have the kind with a threaded post that requires a nut. The thing is, they didn't come with the nut. They came brand new from Campagnolo with no nuts to tighten them down. The threaded posts on the pads just barely protrude past the caliper arms enough to get a tiny 5mm nut on, but all the 5mm nuts I can find are so small that they'll pull through the slot in the arm. If I use a washer there won't be enough threads protruding to get the nut on. And now I can't seem to find the proper Campy nuts online anywhere! Does anyone have any ideas where I could find the appropriate nuts? Why would the pads come without them?

sportbiker

Centaur pads (the rubber part) slip into a carrier and it's the carrier (the metal part) that is secured to the caliper. If you have only the pads, you may still need to buy the carrier. I've attached the relevant pages from the Campy manual. Let me know if this helps.

Lamplight

Mine do have the carrier and seperate pads, but the way the carrier fastens to the calipers is the "stud and nut" kind, not the allen-head bolt kind. I can't seem to find any pictures online of Centaur pad holders like this, and certainly not the nuts to hold them on. Thanks for your help, though.

roadfix

If they didn't come with carriers you can use studded pads.....even generic ones.

sportbiker

Since the manual makes no mention of the type of carrier you have, I'm willing to bet you have non-Campy carriers.

Lamplight

I don't think I have been describing them very well, so I took a couple of pictures. In the second one you can see how few threads come past the arm of the caliper. A 5mm nut is too small in diameter to use there without a washer, and when I use a washer I no longer have enough threads to mount the nut! Oh, and the carriers and pads came in sealed Campy bags.

thomson

Isn't this the LBS's problem?

sportbiker

You have a mismatch. In the Centaur system, the pad can be replaced without loosening the carrier because the pad has no attached hardware --look again at figure 15 in the manual. In your photos it looks like the mounting stud is attached to the pad and slips through a hole in the carrier. What you have may be Campy but it must be for a different brake system.

sportbiker

Take a look at this page to see if you can locate the correct parts.

Lamplight

Ah yes. From that picture I can see that I do have the ocrrect carrier, but the nut looks nothing like I expected it to! In all the other pictures I've seen it just looked like it would be a simple allen bolt that threads into the carrier, but seeing that clears it all up. Thanks so much!