I have a GL1800, non ABS, with a Champion Escort. The sidecar wheel has a disc brake which is spliced into the Honda's front brake system via a Y connection at the master cylinder.
I recently replaced the brake rotor, brake pads and wheel bearings of the sidecar. The replacement brake pads came with the sidecar when I purchased the rig, which is good because they are no longer available, same with the caliper. Jay at DMC Sidecars stated when the time comes I will have to replace the whole swing arm assembly in order to get the updated caliper.
Now my observation. Before replacing the rotor & pads the rig would stop quietly & straight. After replacing the parts the rig still stops straight, but the brake squeals & howls when stopping. I have tried adjusting the pads, applied anti-squeal treatment to the back of the pads, even removed the rotor hub with brake rotor and had them checked for trueness by a mechanist. Nothing works to stop the squealing.
So wondered just how much braking the sidecar brake actually adds to the rig. Today I found a secluded road to check it out. The weather was dry. With the sidecar loaded I did four panic stops from 55 MPH, the first two with the sidecar brake working, the last two with the brake line disconnected (there is a quick dis-connect between the bike & sidecar). Results; the first two with the sidecar brake were within five feet of each other. The longest distance of the last two with just the bike's brakes was ten feet shorter than the shortest distance with the sidecar brake working! Between each run I allowed the brakes to cool down.
Of course using only the bike's brakes there was a pull to the left, as expected. But the rig stops quietly again.
At this time I am going to leave the sidecar brake line disconnected. When it is raining I am going to connect the line again and do the same test again. I am not a engineer, but I believe the difference in braking is because OEM brake caliper valving was designed to apply a certain pressure to the OEM calipers. When the the additional caliper & brake lines were added, this reduces the over all pressure that is applied.
Anyone have any input of this. I will post this also on the Hacks-ADVrider site.
In earlier years when I lived in cold Germany in winter there was no change to "break free" the pads.
Mostly then and when I installed brand new pads I got the anoying squeeking,
Or sometimes when the cylinders weren't moving smooth enough for to retract as they should.
Check if the calipers float movement is given. If not the caliper will not center and squeeking comes too.
If you take out the s/c break and only use it in rain or snow.... then the trouble will come.
My recommendation is to use the breaks hard for a couple of days until they have taken the right form.
Sven
Often when changing new disc brake pads one has to break them in /bed them in by doing some hard braking to get them to conform. It is possible that with the split system you have the s/c brake just isn't working that hard, which could account for the almost negligible difference in braking distances and that they are squealing alot. I'm not sure how you'd do it, but I think you need to get some good hard braking in to help bed them in. The brakes pads may now have formed some polished spots from light braking pressure (glaze), so you might have to take the pads off again and scuff up the surface a bit by rubbing the pads, held flat, against some fine sandpaper that is on a flat surface, such as glass plate. Then reinstall, go out to some back roads and get up to ~50 MPH, brake fairly hard until you get down to around 10 MPH or so but don't stop, accelerate back up to 50 MPH, and repeat. Do this 10-12 times in fairly rapid fashion. Be sure to find a road where you can do this safely without causing an accident are attracting the attention of a curious law man. Ride a little while and repeat. This may, or may not solve the problem, but it is how I bed in new brake pads on my motorcycles and I often get the pads to work nicely without alot of squeeking. Sometimes tho, you just can't get lucky...
My $.02 anyway..
Any time you have a linked brake system with mismatched brake calipers there will be braking problems. On some Hondas and some others the front brakes are also linked with the rear pads. Add another mismatched brake from the hack on the side and you will not get the best possible braking effect. Pulling toward the sidecar is one of these effects. The amount of pull is not always the same due to different loading of the sidecar, direction of travel, or traction due to road surface conditions.
A proportioning valve can ease some of this but not all of the variables.
I have a linked system on my Harley FLHX but rarely use the rear brake due to this erratic braking condition.
After years of driving hundreds of sidecar combos of most Marques I'm not an affecionado of the linked sidecar brake.
(Squeeky or otherwise)
Lonnie
Northwest Sidecars
I found nothing but problems with my sidecar brake linked to the rear brake. I ride with it disconnected and I find the bike works better this way. I have purchased all the hardware along with the proportioning valve but I have not installed it. The only part that hurts is that I spent alot of money on a braking system that I now don't use. The sidecar is still awsome save the locking mechanism for the lift lid but thats a minor thing
i also dont use the rear brake much on my ultra-tle.. but its mostly because the front pads take 10 mins to change and the rear take half a day to change. however when there is a passenger in the sidecar then i use the rear brake - "a little". i always put my foot on the brake pedal even if im not pushing on it so that i dont forget to use all the brakes in a panic stop.
i have also found that its always best to ride in the rear of the group since if i do panic stop the other riders end up going around me with the brakes howling since i can stop much faster loaded than they can. the harley 4 disk setup is very powerful, if a bit annoying.
my sidecar brake stopped squealing after about 5000 miles its completely quiet now
to
Well I reconnected the sidecar brake, which is still tied into the front brake. A little air had entered the line so I had to bleed the caliper again. I also removed the pads to sand any glazed off the surface. With this system to remove the pads involves removing the "L" bracket from the swing arm that the caliper attaches to. The bolt holes in the bracket for bolting to the swing arm are slotted and slightly enlarged, which always made getting the caliper aligned on the rotor disc difficult, since it likes to move a little while tightening down the bolts. This time I placed a .0025 shim between the pads and the rotor and then applied the brake to center the caliper while bolting it down. Worked like a charm.
Also, while reinstalling the pads this time I applied some anti-squeal paste to the back of the pads. I don't know if this helps or not, but I figured it won't hurt anything.
Took the rig out for a test ride, no squeal and it brakes nice and straight again. Yesterday the wife and I went for about a 100 mile test ride, and it passed the "wife" test, no squealing. I think about what others had mentioned about braking in the pads with some hard braking was the trick. I always used both front & rear brakes together and generally gradually brake when coming to a stop, not requiring too many hard stops if I can avoid it. If the sidecar brake starts to squeal again, I will do some more hard stops to try and remove the glazed build up.
I want to thank everyone who contributed to this, hopefully the info might have been a help to others too.
