Help - Brake Pads

[T0mm0]

Hi,

I bought some rear brake pads today and just fitted them.

The problem is the rear wheel does not move freely and after a short ride the brakes where smoking a little.

I'm no motor mechanic but this is not normal. I did notice one of the brake pads was difficult to insert into the caliper. Could I've been sold the wrong pads or will they bed in after a few miles ?

Alittle worried as I dont want to breakdown on tomorrow mornings commute.

Help would be appreciated urgently.

Thanks
T0mm0

[Biker Biggles]

Were the pistons seized and did you clean them up?The other thing that might be the problem is that there is too much fluid in the system and it cant compensate for the extra pad thickness.This can happen if the master cylinder has been topped up as the old pads wore down.
If the brakes are binding enough to smoke I wouldn't try to commute to work on it.

[Tim in Belgium]

Try dropping the pads out, take off the top of the rear brake reservoir and force the pistons back as far as they will go with some wood/cardboard and mole grips or similar. I needed a bit of force to get mine back in but now they seem fine. I'll clean them up too in the next week or two. It may not be enough though if your pistons are too seized/dirtied up.

[T0mm0]

I dont think the pistons were seized.

The bike has been regularly serviced and it seems the calipers were working OK. The brake fluid level was between full and low.
The brake pad nearest to the piston fitted fine, it was the other one which seemed to cause the difficulty due to the thickness. It would appear the caliper bracket nearest the wheel cannot compensate the thickness of the new pad.
I refitted the old one which still had some meat on it and it works fine.

[T0mm0]

From looking at the rear brake construction diagram, I'm wondering whether the brake caliper sliding pin (the bolt nearest the front of the caliper) is not doing its job properly to compensate for the thickness.