New Brake pads slightly oversized.

[dougfollett]

While my bike was down for the transmission rebuild I decided to conquer the wobbly front rotor. As luck would have it I found a new set of rotors on eBay that bolted up nicely to the wheel. I also ordered brake pads that came today and when I went to put them on I found that the metal backing on the pads was about a 1/32 of an inch too wide. The new pads won't fit in the space that the old ones did by just a fraction. My thought is to simply grind down the metal backing on the new ones until they fit. It shouldn't disturb the fiber part as it is appears to be the same dimensions as the old ones. The metal part is wider than the fiber part and there is room to grind off some metal without disturbing the fiber pads. Is this a good idea? My good ideas usually aren't that good. I could be right on this one though. I hope so. I'd hate to have to send them back. It is the width of the pad that needs to be reduced by about 1/32 of an inch.

Doug

[yllib]

There are two different size Brembo calipers that look almost the same and they get slightly different sized pads. You have got the wrong pads. Your pads are for K bikes or Monolever airheads.

[dougfollett]

Hmmm. Guess I got the wrong ones. I do have the monolever though. It's a 1989 R100RT. I hate to go to all the trouble of sending them back. It seems to me that filing these of to match the specs of the originals should be OK.

Doug

[yllib]

Maybe your caliper was changed. Years back, I bought a used '92 R100RT while I was working at Cal BMW and years before they had replaced a caliper under warranty and it was the wrong one. I couldn't get them or BMW to pay for the right one so I had to buy it myself. It is a common mix up that many experienced parts guys and mechanics are not aware of. I have seen the pads for the smaller calipers in the larger calipers many times.

[dougfollett]

I went ahead and ground them down. Guess I'll be the test case. Seems to work fine but haven't had it out for a road test. Need a transmission for that.

Doug

[44006]

I encountered same problem trying to put pads in 1980 R65
dimension of pads available to me was just a bit too much
fore and aft

I ground them down to fit smoothly and have had no problems
for more than 15k miles

[dougfollett]

Thanks, it is reassuring to know that I'm not the only one with that problem. And it's good to know that my idea about grinding them down wasn't totally off the mark. Now all I have to do is repair the stripped out mounting bolt where the caliper mounts to the forks. :banghead