# Rear Brake Sluggish - HELP!



## BowWow (Jan 30, 2004)

My bud just built up a small TCR with DA 10-speed. We really struggled with the rear brake housing from the rear cable stop to the brake. Anything we tried left the brake cable binding, either on the stop or inside the housing. When the rear brake is applied and released it is very sluggish returning to open. It releases the wheel, then slowly keeps opening up until most of the cable slack is taken up.

What are we doing wrong? Do we need a longer/shorter rear housing? He's running DA cables without ferrules (which don't fit into the cable stops). HELP!!!!!


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## 4bykn (Jan 28, 2001)

a pic would help immensely, but I suspect you may have a kink internally in the housing. If you have an old piece laying around (that's why I never throw anything away much to my wife's chagrin) try that.


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## Dave Hickey (Jan 27, 2002)

4bykn said:


> a pic would help immensely, but I suspect you may have a kink internally in the housing. If you have an old piece laying around (that's why I never throw anything away much to my wife's chagrin) try that.


That would be my guess too..


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## BowWow (Jan 30, 2004)

*We'll check it out...*



Dave Hickey said:


> That would be my guess too..


We'll pull the inner out and leave the housing in place and try sliding another inner cable through the housing and brake to see how it feels.

When the housing is off the bike it slides smoothly over the inner cable. It's just when it's installed that it binds. We smoothed the cut ends of the housing and flared the openings with an awl so there isn't any binding due to cutting. It doesn't appear to be kniked...Perhaps it's only MOSTLY kinked! (sneaky movie reference there - 10 points for it's name!)

We'll also try a different piece of outer...

Thanks for the input! We'll keep trying...


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## pdainsworth (Jun 6, 2004)

BowWow said:


> We'll pull the inner out and leave the housing in place and try sliding another inner cable through the housing and brake to see how it feels.
> 
> When the housing is off the bike it slides smoothly over the inner cable. It's just when it's installed that it binds. We smoothed the cut ends of the housing and flared the openings with an awl so there isn't any binding due to cutting. It doesn't appear to be kniked...Perhaps it's only MOSTLY kinked! (sneaky movie reference there - 10 points for it's name!)
> 
> ...


I can feel my manhood whither as I write this... The Princess Bride.


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## flakey (Feb 8, 2003)

With the cable disconnected did you test the brake spring action by itself? take your thumb and forefinger and squeeze the caliper/pads against the rim and see if it springs back quickly and correctly, or is the caliper itself binding. Most modern calipers dont have this problem anymore, but it may help you narrow down your problem.


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