[HRDTLBRO]

I've had a problem with my Hayes Mechanical disks since I took a spill off a kicker last weekend. The brakes rubbed badly, but i've fixed that for the most part. I've now discovered that the brake doesn't grab when i'm riding. When the bike has no weight on it, the brake will stop the spinning rear wheel as normal. The pads aren't worn, but are the contaminated? Also, the end piece that holds the cable and rotates around the caliper is a little loose, so that may come into play. When I crashed, the housing pulled out of the barrel adjuster(not the cable itself) and I just popped it back in. Any help is appreciated, i've been festering over this for a week, and it's driving me nuts. Maybe I should stop crashing?

 

[Hopping]

It sounds to me like your pads got contaminated sumhow since you crashed. Take them out of the bike, and torch them. Get them smokin hot and it will burn all of the contaminants off of the pads. they will take a while to cool enough to touch them, but it should clean them up. Its the only way i know to clean them.
Not crashing is always a good idea haha, but its probably easier just to fix it.

 

[kidwoo]

What did you crash in.........a pool of motor oil? Why would they be contaminated just from a fall?

It sounds more like your cable came loose from the caliper and maybe slipped out a bit. Before you go setting yourself on fire to fix a non existent problem, try pulling a little more cable through the binding bolt on your caliper and then retightening it.