I took off my rear wheel to clean the cassette and can’t for the life of me get my brake cable back on. Please advise
by machuitzil
I took off my rear wheel to clean the cassette and can’t for the life of me get my brake cable back on. Please advise
by machuitzil
10 Comments
The brakes arms should be pointing down not up. Take the wheel back off, put it back on again but this time with the “dia” higher than the “comp”. Looks like you’ll need to adjust the pads when you’re done with that.
Definitely blame the cat.
Make sure the cable housing is seated into the brake lever and frame housing stops.
See if you have some slack to pull on
The roller straddle (that little piece of metal with the wheel on it that hangs directly above your wheel) on DIA Compe brakes often has a little adjustment on it – https://share.google/k90PJfrbbrh5HASSj
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Make sure that little arm is pointed sideways when you attach the cable to the brake arm, and then turn it until its point directly down after you have the cable attached. It’s designed to make the cable easier to install, but sometimes has the opposite effect.
If it’s not that, it could be the arm catching on the tire because the wheel isn’t installed correctly or you’re not using enough force. It’s impossible to know without seeing you attempt to attach it thoughz
Edit:
It looks like the spring on the right brake arm isn’t engaged properly, so look at that as well.
If you squeeze the pads so they contact the rim with one hand you can’t hook the cable with the other? That’s usually the easiest way. If it can’t be done that way then I agree with the other poster thinking it’s probably hung up at the brake lever / barrel adjuster somewhere.
Hey looks like a Schwinn Voyageur, model year 1988 or 1989? Great bikes, and I have spent many hours, swear words, and beers fiddling with those dia-compe canti brakes. They work well when dialed in, but are a pain to adjust.
In addition to what others have said, make sure the straddle cable and brake cable in the housing are pulled out/seated correctly, and the wheel is properly tightened in the dropout. I feel like I’ve experienced this issue in the past and the culprit was a misaligned wheel.
One of the ferrules may have come out of the housing stops or the end of the brake cable itself may not be seated properly in the lever
Use pliers to pull the cable instead of your fingers. If still can’t then remove wheel, deflate tyre, fit brakes, put wheel on then reinflate tyre.
Just trace all along the cable, looking at every ferrule, cable stop, and seating place. With no tension on the cable any one could have kinda popped loose. Once you find it line it up or seat it in and everything will be as before.
It is possible that your levers or the cable hanger at the seatpost have a release which will create more slack…
I found a bicycle on the curb once. The only thing wrong was that the seat’s quick release lever was interfering with the back brake cable so the back wheel wouldn’t turn. The owner couldn’t figure it out so they put it on the curb. Don’t be that owner! I released the seat’s quick release, turned it out of the way of the brake cable and reclosed it. The bike rolled home with no problem. I know it has been frustrating, but you can do this!
Trace the rear brake cable back to your brake handles on the handle bar and check to make sure that each of it’s cable housings (the black plastic coated tubes that the thin metal cable runs through) are inside of each stop so they are all inserted properly. When you take that cable harness pull out of the brake arm, these often fall out of place due to slack in the cable. If the housing is half way out of it’s stop, it can get caught on the rim of the stop, and you lose a couple millimeters of that cable slack that you need to get the harness pull back into place. Once all of the ends of your cable housings are properly seated fully inside of each stop, you should be able to get the harness pull back into place with the bike wheel inserted and while squeezing the brake shoes against the rim with your other hand.
If necessary after you check all of that, find the barrel adjusters for that brake cable to create additional slack while reconnecting the brake’s harness cable pull. Then tighten them again so your handle doesn’t bottom out when you try to stop.