Like everyone, I too have the inane ability to ‘almost’ put my STeed (Miss Scarlett Thunderbolt) back together correctly doing the most basic procedures, like changing a tyre…
Hey Dougie, I had similar sounding problem... i.e - the brake calliper blowing a hole in the left pannier.
I discovered, embarrassingly, that I had fitted the rear brake calliper incorrectly. I had not put the front bolt, that secures the calliper to the swing-arm, through the calliper. The result of my error was that the rear brake calliper sat too far to the rear to avoid the inside corner of the pannier... i.e - big hole.
With the rear brake calliper located correctly, it will not hit pannier. The rear brake worked just fine, even though it was 'floating'.... & bashing a hole in my pannier. Cheers, John & Kate.
… and my latest effort…
Returning to Mackay on the 2018 NatRally Goodes Lookout RTE, had a metal-on-metal grinding sound start to develop from (the front? hub? brakes?)… somewhere down there? Pull over, a bit of head scratching, load the sick STeed onto the recovery trailer towed by ppopeye, with the assistance of two other thoughtful and helpful OzSTOCers (you know who you are)… problem to be investigated later.
So I found nothing in the brakes (pebble between the pads or rotor scoring), then found this on the left-side…
… a chewed bearing dust seal…
(http://www.imghostr.net/images/2018/09/06/63b75970b1ca2368f2cefd20bcacf1e1.jpg) (http://www.imghostr.net/image/JvWqN)
… and dust seal in better condition on the right-side…
(http://www.imghostr.net/images/2018/09/06/5df9364aac70dd544338c67f0e14df4f.jpg) (http://www.imghostr.net/image/Jvj3P)
My best guess on what caused the damage and maybe the grinding sound, is that last time I had the front wheel off, I put the left-side collar in the wrong way around, inside-out, backwards… incorrectly!
So, as they say, “… do everything by the Service Manual, and double check everything three times!”
Cheers, John & Kate.