Posts
122
Joined
10/29/2006
Location
Portland, ME
US
Edited Date/Time
6/5/2026 7:11pm
Dubya wheel set on my 22 FC350. I'm not sure what the issue is. Spinning the front wheel on the stand and it will stop quickly. Brake drag? Bearings are clean and full of grease. Pinch bolts are torqued to spec. This happened last season and I thought the rotor had a bend so I replaced it. Now new pads as of this season are showing uneven wear. If I remove the brake assembly the wheel turns smoothly. Any comments are appreciated.
Bad axle front fork lug alignment during the tightening process maybe? You get this drag when everything is still loose? Or after you tighten everything up?
That or your caliper pistons are sticking.
If it spins free with the brake removed.. you know it's a brake issue and not a bearing issue. Could be sticky caliper pistons as mentioned. More likely sticky caliper pins. Take the caliper off the caliper bracket and clean the pins and pockets well and apply a small amount of disc brake grease. Don't overfill the pockets as this can cause issues. If this doesn't free up the caliper, you may have a bent bracket or bent caliper lugs on the fork foot.
I fought this on my kids 26 Honda 450 from new and spun several other Honda front wheels at the races. Some were fine, some not so much. Loosening the caliper bolts made it go away, so I put feeler guages between the caliper and fork lug/mount until I found the right combination to make it go away. I think it was .035, but ordered M8 shim washers and it’s good now.
I have a set of Duyba wheels with what I believe are Haan hubs on my 2020 KTM 300 XC-W. I had an issue with the wheel spacers right and left. The spacers in the wrong position would not allow the caliper to mount centered on the disc. Easy check.
The Shop
Free shipping: VITALMX
DeCal Works Huge Plastic Inventory of UFO and Polisport kits.
Luxon 4-Post Bar Mounts
$189.95 - $239.95
+1 check the caliper slide pins.
Are you using OEM brake pads? I had some aftermarket pads that fit ...... but were slightly too tall, causing the pads to not retract off the rotor and 1 was slightly angled. Was able to file them down and then they worked fine.
All good info here guys. This morning I pulled the wheel and checked the bearings again. Confidently can say it's not those. I'm going through the proper torque sequence and with the calipers retracted the wheel spins freely.
I had thought my OEM husky disc was the culprit over the winter, so I replaced with a SS Tusk one this season.
I rode today and a buddy at the track looked it over and his thought was a bent or deformed disc. First thing tomorrow I'm pulling the disc and checking it to clear that possibility. It's only got 5 hrs on it, along with a new set of sintered brake pads and new Tusk pin so I'm shocked if it would've gone away that quickly but we'll see.
+1 Bent disk. Had this issue on my KX. Replaced rotor and good as new.
Are you holding front brake lever while tightening up the front wheel axle bolts? This seems to center the caliper on the disc….I spin the front wheel, gran front brake before I tighten any of the front axle/ fork bolts
You are saying the wheel drag issue first happened with OEM rotor? Then you replaced that with a Tusk rotor and have the same problem?
So the same issue over two rotors?
That's where I was going with it, but I can't tell that the Tusk rotor is bent after inspecting.
The caliper pistons are clean upon inspection, but I ordered a Slaven's seal kit just in case.
Ok. That you are having the same issue over multiple brake rotors, would seemingly point to a different root issue and that issue is the thing causing rotors to warp.
I think you said the wheel spins freely without caliper attached. If that is true, it's not a seal issue.
Have you measured the wheel spacers to see if they are different lengths? If not this is a good place to check. The stock 2022 husky hub uses identical spacers, but your Dubya wheels may not.
From there, remove the caliper bracket from the fork and grease the sliding pins. As someone mentioned above.
It would also be good to check that the pistons in the caliper are retracting fully.
If your rotor is still binding against the pads then something else is going on.
To see if the rotor is warped. Remove it from the hub and lay it on an extremely flat surface like a granite countertop. If you can rock the rotor, it's not flat. You can slide a feeler gauge between the rotor and the countertop surface to measure the gap.
Post a reply to: Tight spot - front wheel