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drum brakes

brsteele

brsteele

Member
My front brakes seem to have gotten worse. I know that drum brakes aren't that good but now there's hardly any. How can I fix this ?
 
Are they firm (not spongy) but just have no stopping power. Do that have stopping power but just require a lot of lever pressure. Do they have stopping power when lightly applied but heat fade in longer (highway exit) stops. How long has it been since your last brake job. Are the drums original. How many miles are on the drums.
 
Start by measuring the drums if they are over spec replace them and the shoes, check the wheel cylinder and master cylinder
 
If the proper adjustment procedure didn't help, there's some other things that may. Drum shoes/drums glaze easily, try roughing them up with coarse grit sandpaper. The design of single leading shoe brakes causes an out of round condition in use. That means the cam end of the shoes contact and wear faster than the pivot end. Some shoes can be flipped over, and the thicker end put at the cam. Or they can be switched (what was leading, to trailing shoe). Measure them, if no real difference in thickness, save your time. If the shoes and drum is scored much, don't swap. If the shoes/drum are badly worn, the lever on the hub may need repositioning. At full lock, the lever should have more than 90 degrees from cable end. NOTE; this can be dangerous, an very worn system could allow the cam to wedge in the fully engaged position, locking the brakes (as much as the crappy brakes can be locked :D). The best bet is to inspect and measure everything and replace as needed.
 
OK Jerry here from the Denver area! All my bikes are Pre-69 FLH and other various Harley models...so that being said...they all have Drum Brakes!

There is a guy in Ca. that owns and operates Vintage Brakes! His name is Michael "Mercury" Morse and he can cure your drum brake problems!

He can make a stock looking Front drum brake chrip the from tire @ 35mph He is not cheap and they are not fast but if you want to keep your stock drum brakes.....and make them work as good as a Early style Disc Brake setup then he is the way to go.....PERIOD ! vintagebrake.com or 209-533-4346
He re-does your brake shoes with a certain brake material differant for front and rear.... and he sufaces your drums and so much more you will be impressed with the info on drum brakes on the website too!
tons of vintage bike racers use this guy to make ther 40 +year old race bikes safer, and more fun to race not to mention SAFER!
 
Wow, I wish I knew all this great info back when I had drum brakes. Nice explanation Breeze.:s
 
Breeze3at said:
If the proper adjustment procedure didn't help, there's some other things that may. Drum shoes/drums glaze easily, try roughing them up with coarse grit sandpaper. The design of single leading shoe brakes causes an out of round condition in use. That means the cam end of the shoes contact and wear faster than the pivot end. Some shoes can be flipped over, and the thicker end put at the cam. Or they can be switched (what was leading, to trailing shoe). Measure them, if no real difference in thickness, save your time. If the shoes and drum is scored much, don't swap. If the shoes/drum are badly worn, the lever on the hub may need repositioning. At full lock, the lever should have more than 90 degrees from cable end. NOTE; this can be dangerous, an very worn system could allow the cam to wedge in the fully engaged position, locking the brakes (as much as the crappy brakes can be locked :D). The best bet is to inspect and measure everything and replace as needed.
Click to expand...

I will attest to What Breeze says about worn brake parts, when the clevis pin on my 60 FL rear brake snapped I wore out my boots trying to stop, if in doubt replace any suspicious brake parts, and if you have to have the drums machined get over sized linings if they are available:s
 
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