WHAT Am I Doing Wrong! (A brake question)

[ptkatoomer]

Ok, so on my 300 a while back I blew a fork seal and completely lost my front brakes; the rotor and pads were completely covered in oil. Fixed the seal, cleaned the rotor with brake cleaner, cheaped out and bought aftermarket ebc brake pads (they had good reviews on Rocky Mountain). Also had the brake fluid replaced.
Since then the bike just didn't seem to have as good of stopping power. AND it squealed a lot more. Someone told me I should put oem pads back in it.
Feeling frustrated, I just installed a Galfer oversized rotor kit and new, oem pads. I lightly greased the brake pin and the pins that the caliper slides on. Just running it up and down the street the brakes feel nice and strong, but it squeals as soon as you apply the brakes!
Do you think this will go away as the brakes "run in" or am I missing something here.....

 

[Dirtdame]

Give the bike about 110 miles with lots of braking and the pads and rotor will probably bed in to each other. Some materials squeak more than others. Seems like I hear squeaky front brakes on KTMs a lot more than on other makes. By the way, I have had really good luck running Rocky Mountain's house brand Tusk brake pads on all my bikes. I get the sintered metal version. Good performance at a discount price.

 

[NCSteve]

I had the same happen, fork oil on the front brakes. I didn't even change the pads. Just fixed the forks and cleaned everything well. I run EBC carbon x pads on the front. No squeeling or fading or rotor wear
Def need to let new pads bed in before judging performance. That said, KTMs do seem to squeel more than other bikes

 

[ghte]

Take the pads out and give them a bit of a cross cut work out with a wire brush

 

[pvduke]

noise can be caused by contamination and/or resonation. clean and scuff everything, pay close attn to the cooling slots and holes, pins etc- that can harbor junk and recontminate everything. i dont lube pins unless the book calls for it.

a teesny bit of "something" (insert material of choice here) on the back of some pad types w/ insulators can help with damping vibes/resonation.

some rotor pad (org/met) combos can promote noise. try different pads is all else fails.

gently bedding in pads w/o coming to a complete stop helps lay down pad material on the disc. noise should noticeably diminish with each try of the lever w/in a few tries. if not, somethings up.

clean really well, scuff with #300, clean again, start over with a different pad.

 

[268fords]

Instead of greasing the pins, try polishing them on a buffer.

 

[Trenchcoat85]

The OP indicated he greased both sets of pins.

AFAIK, the pad pins should never be greased- but OTOH, silicone grease should be used on the caliper pins.

 

[ptkatoomer]

The OP indicated he greased both sets of pins.

AFAIK, the pad pins should never be greased- but OTOH, silicone grease should be used on the caliper pins.

Sorry, I don't know what AFAIK means. Why not a slight amount of grease? I don't see that actually migrating to the pads themselves due to the location of the pin.

 

[Trenchcoat85]

Sorry, I don't know what AFAIK means. Why not a slight amount of grease? I don't see that actually migrating to the pads themselves due to the location of the pin.

"As Far As I Know": sorry, I tend to over-use acronyms; 30+ years ago some people had very little bandwidth on the internet so the use of 'em kinda blew up. It didn't help that 95% of the internet back then was military, students & scientists. BTW (hah), google works great on the standard over-used acronyms

grease on the pad pins: well, most grease gets pretty liquid with heat. The pads and the rotor are directly below so the chances of getting grease on them is high (and when stuff is hot, it means your brakes are being used a lot; not a good time). The pads move very little actually (a few mm) so polishing or replacing the pins is a better option; the caliper pins (should) move twice as much and are inside a rubber bellows.

actually, I'd have to think about the ratio of caliper pin travel vis-à-vis the brake pad travel on the pin... ...The inside pad does not move at all on it's pin because that caliper-half is moving, so the outside pad moves the half travel because of the piston. Is that right?? No- the outside pad moves full travel. I think. shit.

couple of assumptions: typical dirt bike calipers with the piston(s) on one side of the caliper; and a well greased caliper (actually in real life, even in the best maintained systems it seems to me that the non-piston side does not move as much as the piston).

 

[NCSteve]

Hmmm...news to me. I've always put a light coat of BelRay greese on the pad pins and haven't had a prob that I know of. Only down side is the grease attracts dirt, but they'll get dirty anyway.

 

[Trenchcoat85]

Hmmm...news to me. I've always put a light coat of BelRay greese on the pad pins and haven't had a prob that I know of. Only down side is the grease attracts dirt, but they'll get dirty anyway.

yeah, most people hear "grease the caliper pins", and then think of the only pins they have ever seen (pad pins). I've never seen a requirement for pad pins to be greased (or even the caliper lip/shelf for the tang at the front of the pads- which would have way more friction) but who knows?

I suppose spraying silicone on the removed pads pins would be fine (no dust attraction). If you're using anti-seize or an automotive grease, I'd make it hyper-thin. A polished, round pin is a better idea IMHO. I think with Brembo pins you can rotate 'em 180° if they're scored.

And like I said in another post, I don't believe the non-piston pad moves at all relative to the pin- so grease wouldn't be doing anything much anyways.

Whenever I'm doing brake maintenance, I give the rubber boot/bellows covering the caliper pins a squeeze and a turn, or sometimes even move the calipers halves apart and back together; to re-distribute the silicone grease on the pins.