Hey guys,
I’m installing Shimano BR-T610 V-brakes onto my 2006 Trek 520. The bike is a frame-up restoration so it doesn’t have brake levers or cables yet, I’m just installing the actual calipers. It’s also my first time doing this so go easy.
I installed and torqued all of the V-brake arms but one of them seems like it doesn’t have any springiness to it. It just sits where I put it whereas the others spring back when I push them into the rim.
Here is a video showing the potential dud (the first one I touch in the video) and the rest of them: [https://imgur.com/a/MybPqPx](https://imgur.com/a/MybPqPx)
Potentially related. I’m looking at the Shimano V-Brake installation instructions. Page 122 of this PDF: [https://si.shimano.com/en/pdfs/dm/GN0001/DM-GN0001-26-ENG.pdf](https://si.shimano.com/en/pdfs/dm/GN0001/DM-GN0001-26-ENG.pdf). The second step talks about changing the amount of shoe protrusion by interchanging washers. That doesn’t make any sense to me. No washers came with the brakes. And if I just change the order of washers that are already on the shoe-holding portion of the caliper, I don’t see how that would change the overall protrusion.
After recording the video (and reading further in the Shimano manual), I noticed there is a little screw. When I screw this in more, the springiness of the caliper increases. But it has to be nearly all the way in to act like the others.
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Thanks
by BikeWinner87
3 Comments
The brake bosses will have three holes on them to set basic spring tension.
You then use the screw to fine tune it after install.
I’d remove the offending v-brake, and reinstall it in the hole the provides a higher spring tension. Make sure your adjustment screw is set wound back out to the mid-point so you have a bit of adjustment both ways.
Three holes like these https://www.parktool.com/assets/img/repairhelp/linear_001.jpg middle is usually sufficient tension for most brakes.
Sometimes you just have to unclip the wire piece that acts as the spring and bend it outwards to get more tension onto it.
On the washers they are taking about the stack of washers behind the brake pads. You can use these to adjust how far the brake pads protrude from the face of the calipers.
On some bikes the rear wheel dish might be slightly off-center. To get the wheel / pads / calipers lined up properly it may be necessary to have the pads slightly further out from the calipers on one side, otherwise the calipers will be canted over to one side.
https://preview.redd.it/h9gnnsyz58fc1.jpeg?width=300&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=dbd701f0459bef61424410dfdd2a329127bf9706