SAFETY ALERT Drum rear brake bike owners please take a look

Chacal (Len at XJ4Ever, forum's supporting vendor & the best thing to happen to a group of XJ owners since Yamaha deciding to make a bike called an XJ )

 

I'll be ordering new shoes for mine come spring... I don't like the [lack of] function back there...

 

I love my job.

You guys rock; makes it all worth while. Seeing 10 pages of responses gives the old Fitz a warm fuzzy.

Carry on.

 

I put new shoes on my 82 xj750 and also took 80 grit sandpaper to the drum. The stopping power of these rear brakes after the new shoes are only somewhat better than the old shoes. I could probably stand on my rear brake lever and not skid the tire. Is this normal? Is there something I'm missing?They look like u-powered brakes(as in you have to power the brakes with foot force).

 

the new shoes don't match the drum yet.
if you were to pull them off again you'll see that the whole shoe isn't touching yet. they'll ware in and get better but it takes a while

 

Im scared now.

 

I ordered new front brake pads when I took off the old ones because I had never seen brake pads shaped like that. |\ \|
I was going to rebuild the caliper too, until the new pads came in and they were already shaped like that. Weird!

 

You still need to rebuild the caliper, the seals are 30 years old and were only supposed to last 4 years. Master cylinder as well; and replace the brake lines. http://xjbikes.com/Forums/viewtopic/t=41400.html

The pads are shaped that way because the caliper rotates as the pads wear down rather than sliding side-to-side the way most calipers do.

This article is a warning in regard to dangerous delamination of the rear brake shoes. Have you pulled yours and visually inspected them?

 

Thanks for the notice, excellent advice.

 

Here's a link for explanation and find out the age, especially since there might be a few old bike's around with some old tires on it
which have a slight different production time explanation.
To be safe, replace any tire over 10 years old, even when it does not have visible cracks, tire shops though can't legally install or
balance your wheels when tires are over 7 years old, well this is for canada, i don't know the rules for other countries.
http://www.tirerack.com/tires/tiretech/techpage.jsp?techid=11

As for original forum post, regarding brake lining coming apart, i've seen it lots, my opinion it's mainly age related with moisture
shortening the timeframe.
Be safe and check them ! it's a 10 minute easy job.

 

so idk if its my shoes r what but every now and then when i go to use the back brake the lever will go down a lot farther than supposed to with no resist and then will kick in really quickly idk the problem i tryed pulling it apart pads are still in one piece and look ok

 

Start a new thread. We can help.

Gary H.

 

the jb weld is a joke NEVER use it to repair brake shoes

 

Is jb weld brake shoes applicable? If it is I wouldn't use it on brake shoes. The cost of a good set of shoes is far less than having old shoes delaminate while riding.

Gary H.

 

NONONONONONONONO! JB weld is not brake shoes applicable. The post says it is a joke. I think it means he's joking. It also says NEVER (bold, italics, underlined in red) use it to repair brake shoes. I think he means never use it to repair brake shoes.
In my opinion, there are two ways to deal with delamination: replace them, or die. (Slight exaggeration)

XJ550H, it would seem that people here do not get your sense of humor... Both times that I have seen you post that pic have sent people in a tailspin! I have a similar problem... Oh well, keep on trying.

 

Oh, ok. I thought he was saying jb weld is a joke and showing a picture of what happened after using it on a set of shoes. FWIW I've used jb weld in a few applications with no hiccups to date. If it was a joke...my bad.

Gary H.

 

Only reason I knew is that he previously posted it in another thread... I probably would have said the same thing if I hadn't seen it. The bold "NONONO" was to emphasize to others that this is a joke. Big Fits was pretty serious when he started this thread, and I respect that. Didn't want bad advice on it for the kiddies... Sorry if I was harsh.

 

My 83 XJ550 just got new rear shoes. Originals hadn't delaminated but were thin. New ones have better stoppoing and don't squeel.

 

With the poor quality of the original shoes and I have noticed that many of the bikes that have bad ones seem to be near the ocean = salty moist air causing corrosion lifting the glue from aluminum base.

 

Mine were delaminating when I got the bike, and there hasn't been an ocean near here for 250 Million years. I've seen delamination on other machines from various manufacturers. They all had one thing in common; age. Time breaks down the adhesive, and if the machine is not used much it will still have the original brake shoes on it. That's not to say that salt air won't accelerate the process.