Hey guys! Had my bike completely torn apart and have been putting it back together. I got the rotors and calipers and wheels back on and torqued, and neither wheel will turn (in neutral, bike jacked up) without significant rubbing on the brake pads. To the point that if I give the tire a good spin and release, it will stop in a half of a rotation.

How can I better align the brake pads to the rotors so that the wheel spins more freely?

It's strange to me that both wheels are doing it. I can't see any misalignment with the pads / rotors. It all looks good.

 

Try either pushing the pads/pistons back in a bit and check the spin or remove the calipers to verify the spin, and or wheel bearings. Then bleed the brakes one time each, to verify that everything is working and good to go.

 

Push the pistons all the way in.

Apply the brakes and hold them a second. Release and spin the wheels. Repeat.

Assuming you got all the shims and spacers back where they belong, you should just need to re-center the caliper sliders and pistons.

The minor runout of the rotor will natually push the pads away as they rotate, thus reducing drag, but may not occur at hand-spun speed.

 

Do the above suggestions first. If it does not work, the question would be....did you reinstall your spacers/washers correctly? Spackers/washer will shift the wheel and misalign the rotor to the caliper....it would also misalign your pulley.

 

Disk brakes never fully release. There is always some drag. What you describe sounds pretty normal to me. 1/2 turn after spinning is actually pretty good. Pushing the pistons back in should let the wheel free wheel and that tells you that the spacers and washers are all in correctly. But as soon as you put the brakes on it will drag a little.

 

Thanks everyone! I'm pretty sure I got the new bearings pressed in correctly (HD did it) and the spacers installed right. I didn't see any shims or anything with the calipers when I removed the wheels. But every part I took off was replaced... i.e. I didn't have anything left over.

 

It's not going to spin like a bicycle tire... like was said, the discs are going to contact the pads ever so slightly... stopping in a half rotation from a hand spin... I'm not too worried about that. Go for a nice easy spin around the block.. .and try them again... then maybe a little further.. .and try them again... I think they're just looking for their sweet spot again.