Brake Pads Falling Out

A friend of mine has a standard commando front disc brake.
Last weekend he applied his front brake & nothing happend.
It turned out one of his pads had fallen out but he did manage to stop by using his back brake.
One of his pads had worn down to about 1mm and there was not enough to keep it in place.
Modern pads are kept in place with pins or clips but not the Norton Lockheed small round pads. He had noticed it was worn but had not got round to replacing it.
He now has new pads & has replaced his underpants.
The moral is to make regular checks on your pads for wear & change them well before they get too worn.
Cheers Don

It is also worth checking the minimum thickness of his disc to see if it has been skimmed, I am a little surprised that a pad would fit through the gap with a standard thickness disc.

I will get him to check this. I know my original disc was undersize when I gave it to someone else.
Ive had a 13" Norvil on mine for many years now so my old disc should not have been that work.
Cheers Don

dave M said:

It is also worth checking the minimum thickness of his disc to see if it has been skimmed, I am a little surprised that a pad would fit through the gap with a standard thickness disc.

Click to expand...

+1, by design, the pads backer plate thickness is greater than the rotor to caliper gap. A cut rotor, or some no non-standard pad maybe?

OP, thanks for sharing!