Rattling XT M739 / XTR M95* v-brakes? How I fixed mine.

The Shimano tune-up kits have all but dried up so I decided to have a go at removing the nasty rattle from my v-brakes.

This method is based on the instructions and contents of the original kits. The only bit you may need to purchase are disk brake rotor spacers. These can even be bought from Halfords if you are desperate. You also need some Superglue; luckily I have some mitre fix with activator to ensure a quick stick.

First step. Carefully take the silver stickers off the ends of the pivot, these can be lifted using a small blade.



There is a small allen bolt that will need to removed so that you can push the pivot out.







Give everything a quick clean whilst it is all in bits. Slide a rotor spacer between the gap to take up the play between the body of the brake and the parallel pivot cage. You can use more than one spacer if needed. This is trial and error but you will need a tiny bit of play left. If you remove all of the play the brake pivot will be too tight.

You can see the spacer in place.



Reassembly is the reverse process. Push the pivot back in, a smear of grease is a good idea. Replace the tiny allen bolt, a tiny drop of Loctite if you want to. To replace the silver covers give the ends of the pivot a wipe to remove any grease left. A few tiny drops of glue and then press the silver end cover in place. Let the glue set but make sure everything moves as it should.





This method helps remove some of the horizontal (squeel causing) movement. Any vertical movement left is down to Shimanos sloppy tolerances that made them bring out the tune-up kit in the first place.

Good stuff! Can remove the cable ties from mine now

Corking stuff

I did exactly the same with mine using spare Hope shims.

The only thing I did separately was soak the arms in white spirit first to loosen up any ground in dirt. Only needed if your brakes are caped in Huntingdon's finest clay

I'm in the middle of doing this also, but i've come across another problem.

2 of the arms have tiny washers behind the top pin, but the other 2 don't seem to have them and leaves a fair amount of space for the parallel pivot bar to rattle about in. I've tried to show you this space in the pic. The pin won't budge. Any help?

The vertical play will remain after 'shimming' the main pivot. The purpose of this exercise is to remove the horizontal (squeel inducing) play. You don't need to touch the parallel linkage arm at all; as you said, it cannot be taken apart.

Okay.

I just thought that since i had them apart, i could try and fix this also.

I can't understand how i've got one pair with these washers and the other without. I wonder if i can find a circlip small enough to pop in there. :?

Am I the only one that doesn't suffer from excessive squeal in my V-brakes?.......not that they don't very occasionally squeal you understand, but less considerably less than any canti I've used :?

Cheers!

Small point, I found using double sided tape on the silver disks worked better than glue.

REKIBorter":2uwx0nzr said:

The only bit you may need to purchase are disk brake rotor spacers.

Click to expand...

good stuff.

I make my own IS caliper spacers from coca cola tins = 0.1 mm or the aluminium cover from 3.5 inch floppy discs = 0.2 mm.