strange intermittent clicking sound from front brakes

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Cleaned up the front calipers today, pulled/cleaned/reinstalled the pistons. Bled the system and now I'm getting an occasional clicking noise that I can't pinpoint the cause. Pulled the calipers and reinstalled, didn't find anything unusual, and its still there. Not a thunk like the anti-dive, a fast loud click, and it seems like it might be coming from the right side, making it also unlikely its the anti-dive, but I can't say for sure. Can't replicate it on the center stand, the bike has to be moving. Its also intermittent, sometimes it will happen once, other times multiple times if I pump the brakes, sometimes not at all.

any ideas what to look for?
 
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Possible loose brake pad , anti rattle clips push the brake pad forward when the clip is loose the pad falls back and when hitting the brakes it moves forward hits the stop, makes a click or snap... only a guess. Try putting it on the center stand, spin the front wheel and lightly apply the brake.
 
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I had the same exact issue/noise from the right SC when I last rebuilt my brakes, turns out the collar(51536-ML7-000) was worn with alot more free play than usual.
Used some teflon tape for a quick fix, wrap the collar to minimise the clearance and the noise went away.
 
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dwalby
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Possible loose brake pad , anti rattle clips push the brake pad forward when the clip is loose the pad falls back and when hitting the brakes it moves forward hits the stop, makes a click or snap... only a guess. Try putting it on the center stand, spin the front wheel and lightly apply the brake.
that's kinda what I suspect, but I can't replicate the click on the center stand, so its hard to pinpoint the cause. I pulled the calipers a second time and verified the pads were installed correctly. The weird thing about the click is sometimes I have to really mash on the brakes to get it to click, other times a light pull on the lever is all it takes, and sometimes its not there at all. I'm wondering if by cleaning up the gunk on the pin that holds the pads in place if I might have a little more play between the pads and the pin than before, which could explain the click.
 
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dwalby
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I had the same exact issue/noise from the right SC when I last rebuilt my brakes, turns out the collar(51536-ML7-000) was worn with alot more free play than usual.
Used some teflon tape for a quick fix, wrap the collar to minimise the clearance and the noise went away.
I think you're referring to the anti-dive grommet, which is on the left side for a non-ABS bike. Also, the problem wasn't there an hour before, it strangely appeared after I cleaned up the calipers, so if the grommet was worn after I put everything back together, it would have been worn prior to that. Doesn't sound like the anti-dive side, it seems like the other side, but I haven't ruled that out entirely just yet.
 

John OoSTerhuis

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The anti-dive grommet is made of nylon and its ID is supposed to be oval. Buy a new one, you'll see. FWIW

Edit: item 3, bushing

image.jpg

John
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John, you might be right, now that you mentioned it, that hole on the right lower fork bracket was elongated slightly and I might have thought it was that bushing was worn. I did wrap the bush with some teflon tape and the click went away, it shimmed the gap between bush and the mounting hole.

My issue was confirmed from the right side and not from the left anti dive mechanism as my bike is a non abs 2000 st1100.
 
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dwalby
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I went back and double checked everything, and I suspect the problem is one of the pads on the right caliper has a lot more free play than the other. Since I don't have any extra pads to try, I can't prove it, or fix it, but its consistent with the fact that I cleaned a fair amount of gunk off of the pad pin while I was cleaning everything. I'm guessing that after I cleaned the old crud off the pin, the play got even worse, and that's what's causing the clicking sound. It also appears to happen after the brakes warm up, so that's why I couldn't replicate it on the centerstand initially. But I got them hot and then put it on the centerstand immediately and was able to get it to click while spinning the front wheel. I isolated each caliper and determined it was the right one, then that's when I noticed the play in one of the pads.

So for now I'm going to leave it alone, there's nothing wrong at all with the brakes, and there's no drag or anything unusual about the front wheel when I spin it on the centerstand. Its not clicking all that often, so I'll just monitor it for a while and see what happens.
 
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dwalby
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Well, you seem to have it isolated - well done.

Just worth checking. Has the clip dropped out of the calliper ? This is the clip from the rear brake, but its the only photo that I have of one. Circled. Click thumbnail to enlarge.
That's good thinking, but the clip was in there. I didn't spend a lot of time analyzing the end of the pad that fits into the clip, other than make sure the clip was there and that the pad tab was correctly seated in the clip. The difference in play seemed to be due to more slop in the pad hole that the pin goes through, and since I'd cleaned up the pin and reduced its effective diameter, that seemed to make sense.

So now you have me thinking out loud. The pads fit loosely into the clip end, just enough to keep them from falling out and rotating. Its not a tight machined fit that would have anything to do with the pad slop, right? The pads are aligned by the pin, and the spring beneath the pin, and any play would be limited by the pin end, not the other end, or am I wrong? If somehow something is worn at the clip end and allowing more pad movement than normal, I think I'd have heard the clicking before my recent caliper removal, nothing would have changed in the before/after picture. I did have to press the pads down a little into the spring tension to get the pin to feed through the holes, so I think that's normal. If I somehow took a small amount of tension out of that spring would that have anything to do with the pad slop, I don't think so, do you?
 
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dwalby
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thanks for the advice and photos, but I'm working with a non-ABS 1100 so the calipers/pads/springs are quite different from your 1300 photos (much simpler). The clip in your first photo looks the same as mine, but everything else is quite different.
 
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dwalby
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I stuck a very small nail into the gap between the pin and the pad hole, and bent it over so it won't fall out, and after a quick test ride the clicking has gone away for now.
 
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