weird disk brake help

Icyseanfitz

hey lads im back ive got these weird disk brakes im trying to fix up for a guy, there mechanical avid brakes and there not bb5 or bb7 as far as i can tell, he said that they are avid juicy mechanical brakes im trying to get the pads and spring out but i cant find any thing to release the spring or pads (normally a release on the top of the brake caliper but there is nothing but solid metal there) any advice?

i tried prying them out with brute force but that didnt seem to do anything, they do look like a set of bb7's as they have the adjustable red dials on both sides of the caliper, but they dont have the normal pad release yoke, please help an aspiring mechanic

el Bastardo

Well, Juicy would imply 'juice' (aka oil). Juicys also uses the same pads as the BB7, don't they? I'm not a mechanic... but it sounds like the wrong pads in the wrong brakes

Throw up a photo - It might help.

Also, if they definitely-maybe are BBs, try winding out the red dials and then poking the pads from the back - It's far easier than trying to rip them out by the 'handles'.

Icyseanfitz

ive gotcha on winding the dials out, but what exactly do you mean by poking them in the back?

el Bastardo

Avid BB7 pads clip into the shiny metal clip at the backside of the calliper. What I meant is that, with the dials out, you can unclip the pads out from the rear (through the hole in shiny clip) with a small allen key or whatever.

Icyseanfitz

yeah thats what i thought you meant there is no shiny hole on the back of these calipers, its all just metal, the only logo i can see on the calipers beside avid is BBDB fricking weird bloody things

Morgan

BBDB is an older Avid brake that turned into the BB7. You should just need to sqeeze the pads together to disengage them from the pistons and pull out. Check the Sram site for manuals.

el Bastardo

Another bit of info from mtbr.com:

"Avid introduced the "Type F" BBDB in '99 or early 2000. Main differences between it and today's offering is it uses 165mm rotors, and used magnets to connect the pads to the pad adjustment device (no spring clips).

The only downside to the 165mm rotors is they weren't standard, and the magnets tended to rot out after time. No major issues with either of these. 165mm rotors are still available, and the newer Avid replacement pads with spring clips work just fine in the original brakes.

In spring of '02, the brake was redesigned to work natively with 160mm rotors, and eliminated the magnets. The "Type N" was still referred to as the BBDB, but is the same caliper sold today as the BB7 (check that... not sure if the black '08 is the same caliper design).

In any event (if I recall correctly), the BBDB designation didn't change to "BB7" until around the time SRAM acquired Avid, around spring of '04.

In any case, being 2002 vintage, it's not really clear to me what you've got. If it's got a plastic Avid logo on the arm extending to the cable stop, it's the earlier type F. If it's got an Avid decal on the caliper body, you've got the newer type N. In either case, you've got a great set of calipers, and a good step above the BB5s you're retiring. "

Icyseanfitz

there not mine actually, just trying to fix them up for a guy, i know there is a plastic logo on the caliper body so it must be a type N, if i was this guy id just get a hydraulic brake tbh, doesnt help that the rear brake seems to be completely fooked up, its constantly rubbing on the outboard pad and no matter what dials i twist it makes no difference,
while trying to put space between the outboard pad and the rotor i bent a little part of the pad retention spring so thats why im trying to take the pads out so i can straighten it
so what ye guys are saying is you basically pull the pads out by force yeah?

Lumen

FWIW I found this guide useful when setting up my BB7s.

http://www.twowheelblogs.com/avid-bb7-disc-brake-set-and-tuning