SAFETY ALERT Drum rear brake bike owners please take a look

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.

 

to help with the misunderstanding never repair brake shoes my dark sense of humor in another post was not well recieved
quoting matti thundrr
"In my opinion, there are two ways to deal with delamination: replace them, or die. (Slight exaggeration)"
not an exaggeration you will die. Many years ago my brakes delaminated locked up the rear wheel solid. lucky i was not in traffic slid about 70 feet to a hard stop

 

Holy Crow! That's a recipe for disaster.

 

thats why its pinned to the top of the tech forum must read for everyone and must do.
its more important to be able to stop than go

 

Well as soon as i figure out how to remove a shaft driven back wheel. I will be lookin at replacing mine for sure

 

Step-by-step:

http://www.xj4ever.com/rear drum brakes.pdf

 

That's exactly what I found on my 83 mid max when I put it on the road last year. When this happens the rear brakes will lock up unexpectedly! Very scary!!!

 

do we ever expect the rear brakes to lock up? I had this happen many years ago just came out of a hard corner into the stright away......

 

Yeah.... When you intentionally stomp on the pedal hard enough to lock the rear up. Just like we did when we were kids on our bicycles

 

Yea I just got a basket case xj 550 that has been left outside for years and sure enough the rear brake pads are completely delaminated
I thought I was the only one

 

sounds like how mine lookin my smart a@@ photo on page 8 of this post with the jb weld tubes.

MAKE no attempts to fix brake shoes

 

damn those are beat good thing you got to them before something happened, ill be checking mine tonight when i get home

 

Fitz you are awesome. I checked my brakes last weekend when I took my rear tire off to check out the bearings and before I put on my chain. If it weren't for your post I think I would've just done the bearings and called it good. Luckily mine were fine.

 

make it a regular thing to check, if you do not know how old they are you never know when they may start to fall apart.

 

Definitely. Once I get it going and roadworthy then that and tires are both getting done. They aren't that difficult or expensive so why not right?

 

Did mine last summer. My fiance insisted on it.

 

Just did mine. Better safe than sorry. Pretty easy process.

 

I feel like I'm getting old as I remember walking into auto shops and seeing brake linings hanging up, waiting to be glued on. I never fancied it though and fixing something that has come apart is a lot less reliable than fixing new materials together.

 

we are getting old I remember being able to buy kits to reline brakes

 

Bett

Better than the alternative. Grin.

 

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

 

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).

 

So where do i get replacement parts?

 

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

 

Thanks
K-moe

 

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..

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

 

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

 

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.

 

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

• 29BOLT[/paste:font]
  90109-08406-00
  
  $6.78
  $4.43
  1
• 30WASHER, PLATE[/paste:font]
  92901-08600-00
  
  $1.90
  $1.59
  2
• 31WASHER, SPRING[/paste:font]
  92990-08100-00
  
  $0.95
  $0.46
  2
• 32NUT[/paste:font]
  95303-08700-00
  
  $2.60
  $2.14
  2
• 33PIN, COTTER[/paste:font]
  91490-20020-00
  
  $1.65
  $1.03