Cracked Brake Disk

chasesa · Feb 12, 2011

I cracked the hub of my brake disk today when I was torquing the nuts without knowing a washer was hiding underneath one stud.

Looking for group opinion: Can the crack be repaired? It is restricted to the hub area only, not to the braking surface.
Thanks,
Stephen

Stephen Hill · Feb 12, 2011

No, the crack can't be repaired and make the rotor useful and safe. The rotor is cast iron, which is brittle to begin with. The stresses from welding would make it prone to cracking, and probably warped as well.

Stephen Hill
Victoria, BC

pommie john · Feb 13, 2011

Don't even think about trying to repair a brake disc.

They're not expensive...compared to the price of a brake failure.
I once had a Commando disc crack from a bolt hole right to the outer rim so it's not an unknown failure.
Just replace it.

chasesa · Feb 13, 2011

Thanks for the sage advice.

I was only considering the possibility of repair since the disk was just received from Old Britts, drilled & lightened. A nice job!

The disk will still look pretty good, with a quartz movement, as a clock.
Stephen

grandpaul · Feb 13, 2011

A nice clock would be a great idea for that disc, and the best one I'm afraid.

ashman · Feb 13, 2011

Hi

A new disc is cheaper than a life, replace it, I like the idea of a clock think I will do the same with my old one...

Ashley

swooshdave · Feb 13, 2011

chasesa said:
Thanks for the sage advice.

I was only considering the possibility of repair since the disk was just received from Old Britts, drilled & lightened. A nice job!

The disk will still look pretty good, with a quartz movement, as a clock.
Stephen

Ugh, that sucks. Is that one of those when you are tightening it down and you hear a pop and think, "That was an expensive pop"?

We've all done it. And by "we" I mean "me".

bwolfie · Feb 14, 2011

I did the ugg thing last week, I pulled my barrel out of the oven pre heat for powdercoating, set it off to the side, and heard plunk ping, followed by a lot of cursing. Broke 4 fins off this time. I had previously repaires 2 of them. They broke again along with 2 new ones. I fixed them, i'm getting good at it now, Re pre heated, hooked up my powdercoating gun and ...nothing. The dam gun finally died, it was a HF special So no big suprise there I have been using it for 10 years... Ugghhhh. Now I'm waiting on Eastwood to send my new one.

xbacksideslider · Feb 14, 2011

I just replaced a cracked disc. It was drilled, three circles, or rows, of drillings, not big holes, more like 3/16" and the center set, every hole, had a small crack moving out ward. The disc had many miles on it before it cracked. I changed to more aggressive pads, rode her hard, put a lot of heat in to it, and cracked the disc.

chasesa · Feb 14, 2011

My solution to the cracked disk was ordering a genuine Norton replacement disk today from British Cycle Supply.

This one won't get drilled because Old Britts has given up on that service. I'll live with stock and play it safe.

Next winter though....
Stephen

britbike220 · Feb 14, 2011

chasesa said:
My solution to the cracked disk was ordering a genuine Norton replacement disk today from British Cycle Supply.

This one won't get drilled because Old Britts has given up on that service. I'll live with stock and play it safe.

Next winter though....
Stephen

I think there are a few people on the forum that can drill a disk, bwolfie comes to mind since he had a couple for sale. You could probably draw the pattern you want and g from there.

bwolfie · Feb 14, 2011

Drilling is the easy part, it's the layout that takes the time. They are cast iron, so a unibit works well. I've seen several places that will make you a template on CAD for around $15. Then you just align it and center punch the hole locations, and go to town. The drill press worked well.

swooshdave · Feb 14, 2011

Great info on brakes here:

post73225.html

Cracked Brake Disk

Similar threads