I changed my rear brake pads on my motorcycle last night and they were doing fine all night and this morning but when I was coming home from school they were making a howling noise when applied as well as some slight squealing. What does this mean?
It means they are binding, do the discs feel very hot after riding? Do not ride the bike far like that as it will distort the disc through heat. The most likely cause is grime on the piston, did you clean them up when you replaced the pads? Otherwise they will not retreat as far as they are supposed to, which was fine with the old pads as they took up less width as they wore down. Some (older) designs benefit from some copper grease on the reverse of the pads (do not get any grease on the face or the disc, and do not use other forms of grease as they are not as heat resistant).
