bik3r88

Hey Guys,

Another day spent on refurbishing used items bought on craigslist.

I purchased an ultegra (I believe its the 5500 or 5600 model) brakeset (front and rear) for the Guru. Everything is coming together. However, after installing the brakes onto the frame a couple issues have arose which kind of ticks me off.

Firstly, the front brake install on the fork was simple enough. The rear brake however had too long of a bolt for mounting on the seat stay part of the frame. We solved this by using a dremmel - taking about a cm off or less. Anyways, problem solved.

Now - my problems with the brakes are that the calipers have too much play on its own axis of rotation. So, if you were to stand behind the bike and tried to separate the calipers by pulling them in opposite directions, it shouldn't move so far right? It should be pretty sturdy/stable. Instead, I get about a couple degrees of freedom. This is true for the front brake as well. I'm thinking of taking the brakes apart, dismantling it while using shimano's tech docs to help guide me back to its original state. Hopefully that will solve my problem.

However, another problem is that the brake pad holder shims touch the fork and touch the seat stays. And not touch like barely touching, touch like its kind of in the way. I'll take another picture of it if I have to, but the main problem is the degrees of freedom.

If any of you guys had this same problem, please post me a response. Maybe you can offer some insight.

Thanks,

reptilezs

shouldn't have cut the mounting bolt. you probably don't have the serrated washers, thus hitting the seat stay. park has a caliper overhaul tutorial

ultraman6970

To open those brakes you dont need a guide... is like this one??



Sure the center bolt is lose or the guys took them appart and the plastic washers than separate the 2 arms are gone. Take the pads out then move the spring out of the hook thing using a scredriver w/o the head, those ones that you can change the head. Once you do that you are all set...put a 5 mm allen in the center bolt and then in the back you have the other piece that you have to hold... turn until everything is disasembled. To put it together is pretty obvious, just backwards.

I see two options, the washer in the middle is gone, or the screw is lose badly, either way better clean and regrease the whole thing again. You can buy a new plastic washer in home depot, or something close and cut it.

Good luck.

ultraman6970

Forgot this... hope you did not put the brakeset backwards, the front one in the back and the back one in the front, in that case probably the bolts will be too long specially in the back.

The front caliper uses a long screw and long bolt, the read caliper uses a short screw and short bolt. Asking about this because i have seen guys putting the brakeset backwards and even cut everything to save weight and make it fit. Actually seen it twice all my life.

Jeff Wills

First off, Ultegra brakes should be 6500 or 6600 (or something starting with "6"). It might be a good idea to strip the calipers down to check for missing parts, then reassemble and adjust properly. Here's an exploded diagram:
https://techdocs.shimano.com/media/te...9830621027.pdf
If there is something missing, you may be able to get small parts by contacting Shimano America directly and asking for the part by part number.

Also, read through this: https://www.parktool.com/blog/repair-...-brake-service , especially the part about "Caliper Arm Pivot Adjustment".

bik3r88

No - that one was pretty obvious. However, the rear brake - still had to dremmel that bolt down. Anyway, you might be right about that washer in the middle, however I think I'm screwed with taking the damn thing apart. I think some of the bolts in the front brakes were lose, after tightening them, there seems to be less play. However, the rear brake plays wayy too much and the reason why I'm screwed with the rear is because I believe one of the bolts I need to unscrew out (which is a hex/allen key) is stripped...

sigh* might have to get a whole new rear brakeset

ultraman6970

Stripped?? wow... never heard about something like that ever. Probably has been lose from long time and they tried to do the obvious,,, tight it as much as posible instead of take it appart and replaced the broken/missing part.

well... good luck anyways