>It seems that the piston, which pushes on to the exterior pad doesn't
fully retract back into its housing when the brake is not activated.
>I tried to take out a bit of the brake fluid but this didn't really help
either.
IF there is any air in the system that could be the problem. They are very
hard to bleed, the air gets trapped in the pipe where it goes uphill from
the master cylinder. You need a small funnel which screws into the filler
hole that can hold as much fluid as the cylinder. Europa will sell you one.
Then pull the handle to its full travel, this will exhaust any air from the
master cylinder and you should see bubbles as the fluid rises in the
funnel.. Next , with the brake calliper off the wheel squeeze the piston in
as far as it will go. This will push air from the tube into the master
cylinder. Reassemble the brake onto the wheel and bleed the master cylinder
again. Each time the handle is released you must make sure the fluid level
does not go below the bottom of the funnel. Now remove the funnel (you may
need to take some fluid out first to avoid too much spillage) and replace
the cap. Test the brake. Quite possibly it will not have enough movement so
allow a little fluid to leak out as the handle is pulled back maybe 3 mm.
and seal again. Handle movement should not be any more than that. If it is
there is still air in the system which could expand with heat and apply the
brake.
While the calliper is removed check that it can slide freely in the guide
plate. Also check that as the pads wear ti does not move outboard so as to
foul on the tunnel side and cause the gear to jam in the up position. There
is very little leverage to lower the gear from full up and it won't take
much friction to prevent lowering the gear.
BTW, I have the lightweight Andair tailwheel on GKWhip. Works well and
looks nice.
Graham
|