SAFETY ALERT Drum rear brake bike owners please take a look

Re: SAFETY ALERT Drum rear brake bike owners please take a l

Words to LIVE by:

Once you get the WHEEL off and out, replacing the shoes is child's play, hard to imagine any task on these bikes that is simpler.

 

Re: SAFETY ALERT Drum rear brake bike owners please take a l

Fitz, thanks for the reminder about the brakes. You probably saved my life.

Glad I looked mine over. The rear was fine, but I had stuck calipers on the front. Funny thing is that even though they were stuck, there was just enough movement to give the appearance that they were working.

So, I guess the moral of the story is that even if your brakes seem to be working, that doesn't mean that they are in tip top shape. If you pick up a bike that has been sitting, better completely go through the brakes even if you aren't from Missouri the 'Show Me' state.

 

Re: SAFETY ALERT Drum rear brake bike owners please take a l

OK so how about a HOW to on removing the rear wheel?

 

Hey! I found one... in the How to: section .. Imagine that

 

should have read it first ... It's how to change a tire . . Not about xj wheel removal

 

On the 550 you pretty much take off the nut, drop the adjusters out of the way and push the wheel forward to clear the chain off the sprocket, remove the push blocks, pull out the axle, and extract the wheel. (Disconnect rear brake first.)

Then simply lift the brake clear of the drum.

Is there more to it on the shafties?

 

This will probably get you there. Disconnect the stay and rear brake. Just keep unscrewing the brake adjustment screw until it comes off. Remove the nut, and take a rubber hammer and give the nut side a little pop. Slide the axel out and you will see you now have room to slide the wheel to the brake side. You may have to take your rubber hammer again to the shaft side of the wheel to get it to release from the shaft splines.

Easy breezy. When installing it back on, if you can't get the shaft side to seat, then run the axel back through and put the nut on and keep turning to walk the wheel back on the splines. Be careful that you have your splines lined up. If the nut is easy to spin, they are lined up. If it starts binding, then stop, loosen the nut just a little, and jiggle the wheel to see if it will line up.

 

Well while it is down for painting I guess I am goin to add disasemble the rear brake to the to do list... sigh.

 

ya its a piece of cake taking it off actually, the only problem i came across was the adjuster bolts were stripped and making sure the bike is aligned and the chain is corectly tenstioned was a pain going back and forth between each adjuster. But Honestly took me maybe 20 mins top to take it off (time includes getting the right size tooks and vice grips to get the strip bolt out :lol: ) Definatly worth taking it off just to check the brakes!

 

{BUMP} I've linked this thread in responses to two new members' "just got my new bike!" posts in the last couple hours. Since there are at least a half dozen more that need to see it as well, so I thought it might be time to "bump" it so the new XJ owners have some warning as well...

SO: New owners especially, if you don't know for 100% sure that your bike has had its rear brake shoes replaced at some point, PLEASE take a few minutes and check for delamination. This seems to be a very common failure.

 

if it's already been suggested, i apologize, i didn't read every post. But can we STICKY this?

Seems like a safety issue like this should be on the front page here... ALWAYS.

 

I'm not sure how. "Airhead valve adjustment" should be stickied too, IMHO

This one's major though; there's too great a percentage of us that have found this condition. Old XJs keep turning up every day, as do their newbie owners, and this is a trap lurking to bite anybody who hasn't checked.

 

a forum admin needs to do it.

 

Front Pads do the same thing. I just replaced the front and rear pads on my #1 1100 and I found the left front caliper pads coming apart. I will post a note later with pics. So the lesson of the day here is to look at the front pads too.

MN

 

All of those delaminated brakes look just like the ones that fell out of my XJ750RH after I got it home this Feb. to start my own resurrection, pulled the rear wheel and out fell these 4 paper thin crescents, one was still complete the other was in 3 pieces. I don’t know how the PO ever stopped. I have been through everything on the bike now except the…nope I replaced that too. “Thanks chacal” I’m just waiting for plastic, fenders and tank to come back from paint. One other note, could Yamaha have put the remote master cylinder on these early Seca 750’s in a harder to get to place?

 

Re: SAFETY ALERT Drum rear brake bike owners please take a l

Actually, yes, they could have. What must have been a "prototype" bike was pictured in some of their early ads with the brake fluid reservoir on the left frame rail, under the gas tank........

 

Just an addition to this topic. The first post talks about the brake shoes only. But worst thing can happen. My original drum brake developed 1 or 2 nice cracks across the lining. As I realized it can't be fixed other than replacing the whole lining.

It was easier / cheaper to buy a new rear wheel on eBay. And I was given a new tire with the wheel as well

When you're examining your rear brake take a look on the lining as well and check for cracks. By the way, when you're installing a new set of shoes and the brake sticks after assembly I would say the lining in the drum is out of shape. Maybe it can be fixed maybe not. But this means you have to check carefully!

 

So I'll be checking my brakes, but I see these pictures you're posting and you're saying "ZOMG THEY'RE SO BAD!" but as a total newb I have no idea why they're bad. Can you clarify what I'm looking for when I take my brakes off that you say is so terrible?

 

Sure. Look at my first pic in the initial post. Notice how the brake linings are coming unglued from the shoes. This is known as delamination; in tito's and wingnut325's posts (down toward the bottom of the second page) they included pics of theirs that had COMPLETELY separated.

The danger in this is that if a lining suddenly comes off and becomes jammed in there it can lock the rear brake unexpectedly. Not too bad if you're tooling down a side street at 25mph, can get real hairy at 60mph.

 

Sorry, but what's the brake lining?