Wheel Runout question

[masontrep]

So, I have cleaned the spooge hole, cleaned the calipers and bled the system for the front. Pads are a little worn but not in bad shape as far as friction material left. There are some pretty interesting grooves on the pads. The rotors have some ridges to, but not enough to catch a fingernail.. My question is, should there still be some contact between the pads and the rotor? I can roll the wheel almost 3 revolutions, but there is some drag an from the brakes, and it makes a slight noise. Should there not be any at all? If there should not be any at all, what do I need to look at next.

The old Dot3 that was in there was about the color of light maple syrup.

thanks for any help.

Joel

[TomB]

Hey Joel

You'll always get a little bit of drag from your pads but if you can lift the front wheel off the ground and spin it 3 revolutions its OK.

If you are worried about drag you might try undoing the fork wheel spindle/axle clamp and bouncing the forks up and down (and then remember to tighten it back up), I know the calipers are on sliding pins so should line up themselves but I've found it helps settle the front end down a bit.

Put it this way, you can only make things better by doing it not worse

[fredintoon]

Nobody ever does

but the book sez change the brake fluid every year. I go by the colour change and light maple syrup is a tad dark. Carefully bleed out the old as you top up with new until she bleeds clear.
Fred Hill, S'toon.

[prometheus578]

"What a drag!"

There will always be a slight drag.
Grooves are from road grit and bits of run over animals that get caught between the pads and the rotor. Can't do much about that.
Noise? Again, grit on the pads. You can remove them and dress them with a file. (Ask TRBIG about this technique... as he's quite familiar with the terms "Dress" and "Drag" from what I understand)
Noise can also be caused by old pads, and pads made from a harder compound. If it bothers you, replace the pads.
Mine squeeked. Removed the pads, resurfaced with a fine-milled file, squeek be gone.

[pggg]

'Did you know' if left too long, brake fluid becomes a sinister electrically charged soup of electrolysis, happily sitting in your brake system corroding and munching on alloy and steel...

[prometheus578]

... slowly turning into a gel-like substance, till it finally dries out completely and has to be scraped out.
Change yer fluid at least every two years. Saves you a lot of work later on.