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SAFETY ALERT Drum rear brake bike owners please take a look

Discussion in 'XJ Technical Chat' started by bigfitz52, Mar 6, 2009.

  1. Lightcs1776

    Lightcs1776 Active Member

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    Bett
    Better than the alternative. Grin.
     
  2. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    McMaster Carr still sells brake lining and adhesive. I used some to reline a clutch on a Cub Cadet a few years ago.
     
  3. Lightcs1776

    Lightcs1776 Active Member

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    Just a quick addition to this thread. I replaced my rear brake shoes this weekend at the NY Carb Clinic. There was just a small amount of delamitation beginning to start. I am really glad I decided to replace them, especially since I didn't know when the PO replaced the brakes. There is no good reason to risk having the brakes hit you while going 55, 65 or faster down the highway. And replacing the brakes was a snap (although have Dave and company at the Clinic, providing step by step instructions, made it even easier).
     
  4. danmar1963

    danmar1963 Member

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    So where do i get replacement parts?
     
  5. k-moe

    k-moe Pie, Bacon, Bourbon. Moderator Premium Member

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    XJ4Ever banner is in the upper right hand corner of every page. Start a conversation with Chacal to order.
     
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  6. danmar1963

    danmar1963 Member

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    Thanks
    K-moe
     
  7. Reflektor

    Reflektor Member

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    Checked my shoes today on the strength of your advice. What do you think about the state of them?
    To me they seem absolutely usable, in fact they appear to be virtually new to my eye. Happy to change them if my eye decieves me..
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
     
  8. BaldWonder

    BaldWonder Innocent Bystander

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    It's not the life left on the pad/shoe that concerns us, it's the age of the glue holding the pad to the metal. When they reach this age, they can de-laminate, meaning the pad breaks away entirely. A lose pad will very quickly get lodged between the drum and the other pad, causing the rear wheel to lock up. You don't want this to happen while you're going 65mph. Or at all, really.
     
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  9. Reflektor

    Reflektor Member

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    Can I date the pads? They really don't look old to m, nor show any signs of delamination. The bike has had new brake lines fitted in recent years (stainless) and appears to have been maintained well.
     
  10. BaldWonder

    BaldWonder Innocent Bystander

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    That I don't know. Maybe one of the others know. Guys? Buehler?
     
  11. mikeforbes

    mikeforbes Member

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    Here is a nice well staffed, pleasant, and will do mail in and out services for all bike brake shoes. If I remember they will do new brake linings on your old shoes for about 4 dollars each shoe, so 8 dollars a pair. Check prices with them to make sure I am not 15 years out of date. I had them reline 10 pairs for me of XS400 and Honda CM400 shoes a few years back. They had them done in a day and shipped out to me the following day. Best deal on replacement shoes I have ever seen. Good old USA labour and a nice job well done. And you can feel good about recycling those old brake shoes, instead of throwing them away.

    They like bikes and the people who ridem.


    Unlimited Service Downtown
    2325 E. Bakerview Rd.
    Bellingham WA 98226
    (360)734-2828
     
    Last edited: Sep 1, 2016
  12. MiGhost

    MiGhost Well-Known Member

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    From the pics it looks like recent replacements on the shoes.
    Anybody that knew enough to install stainless brake lines would have looked at the rear brake also.
    ~Ghost
     
  13. BigVinceDawg

    BigVinceDawg Member

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    I'm replacing my rear tire this weekend and I new it was old but now I know it is from freakin' 2003 and I just put a few thousand miles on it in a week, while i'm replacing it i'll be working on that rear brake as well

    Thanks for the heads up though, everytime I get on this forum I learn something
     
  14. OldFleetGuy

    OldFleetGuy Member

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    Can I date the pads? Sure. Replace them.
    Cost of new shoes - @ $50.00 USD
    Cost of a Busted Ass - TBD
    Piece of mind - Priceless.

    Period.
     
  15. The Bingles

    The Bingles New Member

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    I've just started customising my 650 maxim after about 7yrs of sitting in my shed. Took the rear wheel off to respray, checked the shoes, and they had started to delaminate, luckily found a set of vesrah vb227 shoes on eBay for £17.50.
     

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  16. YYCMaxim

    YYCMaxim New Member

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    Hi all - I'm new to the site. I just picked up a used 81 Maxim 650 about 2 months ago. I've been tooling around the city with it and had no problems until last week. I was travelling up and down the highway (speeds up to 65-70mph) when I pulled off onto my exit and up to my stop light. I noticed that the bike seemed to be sluggish and I had a bear of a time getting off the line (kind of embarrassing as I had a line of traffic behind me). Anyways I managed to struggle through another stop light and onto some side streets where I live. When I pulled up to my house (there is a sidewalk and curb in front of my house), I got my front tire on the sidewalk and my rear tire still on the road (needing to climb up the curb). Well I couldn't get the bike up the curb. Second to that, when I took the bike out of gear and into neutral, I couldn't roll the bike or even rock it back and forth. So I sat there looking like a fool waiting for the bike to cool down a bit - I couldn't put the side stand down because of the curb. After about 5 minutes of sitting there in front of my house, I noticed that I was able to start to rock it back and forth again, and I was able to get the bike back into my garage (definitely smelled of brakes!). Needless to say, I'm very fortunate that nothing disastrous happened while out on the highway!

    Anyways, I found this site (a little late - thankfully nothing bad happened), and started off with taking apart the rear end of the bike. So I noticed that when I pulled off the rear axle, there was no spacer - I couldn't find it on the rear drum brake cover plate, and it was not on the axle.

    Does anybody know what that part# is? Thanks in advance.
     
  17. Stumplifter

    Stumplifter Well-Known Member

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    Contact Chacal/ Len by clicking on the icon in the upper right hand corner - XJ4Ever.

    P.S. glad you are ok, hope you didn't warp anything, I imagine there was quite a bit of heat being generated.
     
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  18. hogfiddles

    hogfiddles XJ-Wizard, Host-Central NY Carb Clinic Moderator Premium Member

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    Looking at that pic---- they haven't STARTED to delaminate..... they're just about DONE delaminating.
     
  19. YYCMaxim

    YYCMaxim New Member

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    Hi All - so I just finished putting back the rear wheel back onto the bike and I realized that I had the spacer that I needed all along - but whoever took the rear wheel put the spacer in the wrong spot! They had put the spacer along with the washer next to the castle nut?!?! WTF?

    Anyways, I put my new spacer where it was supposed to be and torqued the castle nut to 77ft/lb as recommended. Anyways, the reassembly went fine until I came to the instructions I was following telling me to tighten the nut for the tensioner bar and then install the cotter pin. No problem, right? Not for this guy... so I begin to tighten the nut as I wanted to tighten it until the point where I could see the hole where the cotter pin goes. Problem is that I think I torqued it too much and I think I stripped the threads on the nut as it just spins around the bolt and I can't seem to tighten or loosen it.

    Am I in big trouble here? I don't even know what the function of that tensioner bar is... The question is though, am I hooped or can I leave it and go riding? :) If it should come off, how would one go about removing that nut from the bolt? Any input would be much appreciated.

    Thanks in advance.
     
  20. XJ550H

    XJ550H Well-Known Member Premium Member

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    cut the nut and bolt off and replace . the tensioner bar is very important if it is not there or attached when you apply the rear brake the drum will spin with the wheel and wrap your brake rod around the axel. bringing you to a delayed and unpleasant stop

    from www.partzilla.com you can go to dealership and buy/order the parts part is used up to year 2000 so may have them in stock or order and wait a week or buy them from www.xj4ever.com

     

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