rear brake question

This may be a rediculous question, but for safety sake I need to ask. I took off the rear wheel today to change the tire. After I reinstalled everything, I noticed the rear brake isn't working. Everything was put back together correctly I thought. No extra parts laying around! The rear brake light does work when I step on the brake pedal. I noticed that whe I stepped know it, it went down further than it normally does. This is when I realized the brake isn't engaging at all.

Anybody got the fix?

 

It is a straight mechanical linkage, so my guess is that you need to adjust the adjusting screw that attaches to the rear brake actuating arm.

 

The brake pedal pulls the rod that pulls the arm on the outside of the brake drum housing on the rear wheel. Three things may need adjusting.

1) The hollow nut with the U shaped recess on the end that is screwed into the brake end of the rod.
2) The arm on the drum housing.
3) the brake pedal.

Check the brake pedal is installed at it's highest point. you can do this by trying to lift it up with your hand - if it comes up at all it's not - take it off and turn it counter clockwise till it finds a home. It may not come up with your hand - in fact if it does then there might actually be something else wrong like the spring. Just look at it and see if it looks like it could be rotated up more. Moving this up will only give you more play in the brake that might help to engage it at it's low point but you should do the following too.

On the center stand -- Tighten the nut that holds the rod to the arm - it's hollow so the arm will stick through it - if you can't tighten it so that the brake is always on ( on the center stand you can spin the wheel by hand - make sure it's not in gear ) and still have about 1 inch or thread left on the rod you should adjust the lever on the drum housing --- mark across it with a sharpie marking - undo the clamp and work it off - then turn it clockwise 3 or 4 notches and try again. Once you get it so that the brake is fully engaged without the pedal being pressed and still have some thread on the rod to go you can start undoing the bolt on the end until the brake comes "off". Then you can play with the sensitivity you want. I like it to be right there.

Don't worry about that pointer thing - if you replaced the rear shoes you can go ahead and put a little sharpie permanent dot at the point but for the most part it's basically not worth worrying about - in my experience it doesn't really show you much or function that well.

 

The pointer (when oriented correctly) shows you when your brake shoes are about worn out so you don't damage the wheel (and the integral brake drum) by running the bike with unlined brake shoes.

 

look at what you touched.
did you adjust chain if you have one.
most likely culprit would be the bolt that adjusts the brakes. Ribo walked you through it.
better question how much of the brake assembly did you undo did you just undo the adjuster nut or did you remove the brake lever from the cam
that would be this arm with the grass hanging out

 

Got it fixed, guys. I had to take off the arm, reposition it back further and went from there. Not sure how it happened as I didn't take that arm off before, but nevertheless it's working again!
Thanks for all of your help guys!