brake shim

[redbone]

anyone out there have an extra rite hand front brake shim laying around? the little tab broke on mine and now won"t stay in place.
athanx redbone

[Ken Talbot]

Put a very small dab of silicone disk brake grease between the shim and the back of the pad. This should hold the shim in place long enough to reassemble it all. Once together, the shim should not be able to fall out. Whatever you do, use the grease only where the pads slide on their guides, etc - never on the disk or the friction side of the pads.

[HobbyMan]

go without them. I do

[Ken Talbot]

Originally posted by HobbyMan
go without them.

This is an option too.

Properly installed, the shims introduce a very slight taper to the contact between the pad and the disk. I believe this is supposed to help minimize the squealing that is so common when you first touch the brakes.
YMMV...

[Geezer]

I put bendix brake anti-squeal compound on mine and leave the shims out.

The only difference between how I apply the anti-squeal compound and the instructions is that I let it dry throughly before I reassemble. If I'm doing the repair on a cold day, I put them in the oven on the lowest setting for 30 minutes.


Geezer

[skids]

Oh yeah right! You are just trying to get my wife to beat on me again! If she sees tuppaware in the garage, it is finished. I swear, she must think I am putting plutonium in them! I cooked some head pipes with the insides coated with some ceramic material and she tried to get me to buy a new gas oven - and we have an electric one!

Originally posted by Geezer
If I'm doing the repair on a cold day, I put them in the oven on the lowest setting for 30 minutes.


Geezer

[Geezer]

I hear you... My ex once threw a monumental fit because I baked gunkote on a header pipe from my old Ducati in the kitchen oven.

She was yelling that we couldn't cook food in there anymore because it would poison us. It didn't help to tell her that I'd used the oven for that a dozen times before I met her and she was OK now...

Geezer