I made my coaster brake squeal, now I want it to stop.

[yoothgeye]

I recently build this klunker...

It's an 80s Hunter cruiser, wide rims, heavy gauge spokes, with a Shimano coaster. I swapped out the stock crank and chainring for the smaller ring you see in the photo. I took it for a trail ride with my son and kept hearing a loud "THUNK!" when braking or pedaling after braking. I looked and saw that the chainring was slipping on crank and had egged out the "key" hole on the crank.

The next day I tore it down for service. Realizing that if the brake was engaging and disengaging smoothly that the problem with the chainring would not have been so severe, so after removing the crank, tightening the chainring and putting that back together, I completely disassembled the coaster brake. Cleaned out all the old sticky grease, repacked the hub and bearings with white lithium grease.

Now the brake engages and disengages smoothly, but while braking it SCREAMS!!!!

How do I fix it?

 

[Wildcat]

The hub shell where the pads contact may be glazed. It'll have to be taken apart and honed or sanded to get the glaze off.

 

[yoothgeye]

The hub shell where the pads contact may be glazed. It'll have to be taken apart and honed or sanded to get the glaze off.

Do you have a more simple solution, such as the location of a switch marked "squeal" and "don't squeal" that may be flipped the wrong way.

 

[Wackazoidal]

The hub shell where the pads contact may be glazed. It'll have to be taken apart and honed or sanded to get the glaze off.

That is good to know. I don't have a squeal but I do have a very poorly braking hub. I took apart the hub and everything looks fine with almost no wear at all, but the braking is very poor. Perhaps I need to do the same honing thing on my hub.

 

[Jpromo]

The hub shell where the pads contact may be glazed. It'll have to be taken apart and honed or sanded to get the glaze off.

That is good to know. I don't have a squeal but I do have a very poorly braking hub. I took apart the hub and everything looks fine with almost no wear at all, but the braking is very poor. Perhaps I need to do the same honing thing on my hub.

This can typically be remedied with a fresh blast of grease. 96% (scientific figure) of the time, the parts aren't worn or problematic, they're just suffocating in old crusty grease.

 

[Rockit!]

The hub shell where the pads contact may be glazed. It'll have to be taken apart and honed or sanded to get the glaze off.

Do you have a more simple solution, such as the location of a switch marked "squeal" and "don't squeal" that may be flipped the wrong way.

Check your spokes. There may be a cat trapped in there.

 

[yoothgeye]

Check your spokes. There may be a cat trapped in there.

That was easy.

 

[clamdigger]

My experience has been that there are different solutions for different hubs.A simple one for that hub would be to have the wheel installed with tension on the chain.Loosen the axle nut on the brake arm side only,and turn the brake arm to get the bearing cone as tight as possible before causing any drag on the ball bearings.If that does not work for you then it's time to deglaze,etc.

 

[CCR]

What kind of hub ? if its a bendix, try flipping the brake pads (drive side to the brake side). Im convinced a lot of the squealing is usually vibration or metal on metal from wearing deformities. You usually find the grooves are worn shallower on the drive side of the pads.

 

[Rooski]

I would just wait to see if things break in, and it quiets down on it's own. If not, try a different type of grease.