Squealing V-brakes...

[gradeAfailure]

...are driving me nuts!

The Yo has a set of XT V-brakes on and whilst the rear one is fine, the front one squeals like a beeyatch at anything more than the lightest braking pressure. Have cleaned the rim with degreaser (Mavic 231CD), taken off the top surface of the pads with sandpaper, toed in the pads, toed out the pads, set the pads flat - nothing works!

Anthing I can do or is this just a known issue, and I should stop being a girl and just put cantis on her?

 

[orange71]

not sure if it's to everyone's taste but I get some wet mud off the ground and rub it all the way round the rims - find it does the trick normally.

 

[JS1500]

Have you tried just not pulling the lever?

 

[Stick Legs]

XT's and the like have that linkage thing to keep the pad parallel to the rim sidewall.

I found that the linkage develops slack in it and you need masses of toe in to compensate. Worked on the ones on my Orange anyway, they are running about 2.5mm of toe in but that reduces to almost nothing when actually braking a turning wheel.

Can't hurt to try, OH! I'm running them on Mavic X717sup's but before they were on X517 CD's with Aztec's, no squeeky here

 

[messiah]

XT's and the like have that linkage thing to keep the pad parallel to the rim sidewall.

I found that the linkage develops slack in it and you need masses of toe in to compensate.

My solution to this is to put a zip tie round the rattly linkage and the arm - this helps a lot.

 

[stevet1]

Yeah I remember the zip-tie trick. You could also buy a tune-up kit which consisted of some thin spacers which fitted between the linkages. Helped a bit but not sure if you can still buy it.

 

[cchris2lou]

The tune up kit was given free as Shimano realised they had a problem . unfortunately , most dealers sold it .

 

[gradeAfailure]

Cheers for the replies guys! We have some small shims here at work so I'll certainly give that a shot... Failing that, a zip-tie sounds faster and cheaper!

 

[terryhfs]

There's also two other things to check;

Are the bolts holding the arms to the brake bosses on tightly?

Are the pads compliant in rotation terms with the rim?

 

[P20]

Its not just XT, my Arch Supremes have started squeeling. Theres no play in the arms or linkage, tried everytthing, just decided to ride it
Its no worse than a lot of disc brakes(Hope). In the summer, deer seemed strangely attracted to the sound

The XT did have a shim repair kit, which did work. I've seen plenty using zip ties though