Rear Brakes
 

It seems as though most folks over look their rear brakes. You should remove the rear wheel & hub every 10k to 12k miles. Check the drum inside the hub for excessive wear or grooves, and replace if present. Also, you should wash the hub & shoe assemblies and inside of the drum with Brakekleen or equal. Don't blow it out with compressed air. Brake dust is toxic shit. Next you should lightly grease (white grease) the pad contact points (whether replacing the shoes or not) before re-assembly. Of course you'll have to re-adjust the rear brake. The difference in smoothness and braking power was amazing.

I also replace the rear hub rubber shock absorber while apart. It's $5 to $8 and really smooths out gear engagement and removes all the driveline slop (and noise) that comes on slowly over time from wear. It really made a big dif on mine when I replaced it at 10k miles. I plan to do it every 10k.

I also remove and clean/lube the chain at the same time. I have an o-ring chain, so 5k oiling & 10k service is all it gets.


:)

Re: Rear Brakes
 

Good post! :tup:

Are you really saying that you only lube the chain (oil) every 5,000 miles ??
O-ring or not, I'm thinking that's not often enough.
Just a few drops along the bottom will get distributed by the sprockets; not necessary to oil the "whole thing".
I give it a touch every 300-500 miles.

Re: Rear Brakes
 

Sorry, I hit it lightly with spray lube every few of rides (200 miles or so) or after a wash w/ major oiling as above.

:whistle:

Re: Rear Brakes
 

A very light sand blasting will remove glazing and smarm from the brake shoes. They come out working and looking like new.

Re: Rear Brakes
 

So does the rear wheel have to be removed in order to get inside that hub?

Re: Rear Brakes
 

Yup it does.

Re: Rear Brakes
 

OK, I just came back from "cleaning" my rear brake shoes. It really was not as hard as I thought it would be. All I did to get to them was roll my back tire onto a couple of boards to raise it off of the ground about 3". Then I took my jacks stands and shimmed them up a 3" by placing additional boards under them. Once I got my bike standing in the stands my rear tire was about 4" off of the ground. I un-did all of the brake bolts and loosened the tire bolt. Next, I pushed the tire all the way up to the front as far as it would go. Then I kind of took the top of the chain and moved it off of a couple of the rear sprockets (on the top portion of the sprocket). With the bike in neutral, I slowly spun the tire backward until the chain fell off of the entire sprocket. Then, I "lifted" the weight of the rear wheel off of the mounting bolt and pulled it out. The rear wheel rested on the floor and I was able to get inside the hub for cleaning. IT WAS FILTHY!!! I sprayed brake cleaner in and around the shoes and inside the wheel where the shoes come in contact with the wheel itself. I sprayed A LITTLE white grease onto the little pinion point inside the hub and re-assembled everything.

Things sound a lot quieter back there now. I used to hear a faint grinding sound in that hub even when the brakes were not applied. Must of been all that dust and crap inside there getting stuck in between the shoes and the hub wall. The shoes themselves still had a lot of meat on them so I probably will not replace them until next year.

This is just another example of how easy it is to work on these little buggers. By the way, if anyone would like to try this out for themselves, make sure you have a couple of spare cotter pins close by. There were two cotter pins that need to be removed during this operation and, if you are like me, by the time you remove them they no longer look like cotter pins :) .

Re: Rear Brakes
 

how man rear sprockets do you have?? :lol:

mine are good according to the indicator line. you guys think that thing is accurate on this bike

Re: Rear Brakes
 

I guess I should have said TEETH on the rear sprocket.....

Re: Rear Brakes
 

naw, i think we all know what you meant. i couldn't help when i saw a opportunity to make a funny..

Re: Rear Brakes
 

That's ok... BTW, my rear brakes were working fine before I did this. I just noticed a very faint noise coming from inside that grey hub. With the engine off, I would roll the bike a little bit and I could hear a grinding sound. When I rolled the bike and slowly pressed the rear brake, it would get louder and louder until the bike stopped. Now, that sound has disappeared. I'm glad it cleaned all that crap out of there.

Re: Rear Brakes
 

at least you realize strange noise from the breaks are bad. some will just let stuff go untill it tears every thing up or quits on them.

i need to do my front breaks soon. im gonna wait till my new tires come in and i get them installed just in case i run in to a problem. hopefully the tires will show up today.

Re: Rear Brakes
 

I don't know if you know, but there's a "brake shoe wear indicator" on the rear hub. This will tell you when you need to replace the brake shoes.

Re: Rear Brakes
 

Yeah, I saw that... How the hell does it work??? It's kind of hard to figure out. Is it based on movement? If you adjust that little nut thingy on the end of the adjustment screw it limits the movement on the dial... I think the best way to tell if you need new shoes is to get in there and take a look.

Re: Rear Brakes
 

If you look at the end of the splined shaft that the brake lever fits on, you'll see a straight mark (like a saw cut) On the drum itself is an arc. So long as the "saw cut" is pointing anywhere in the arc, the shoes are o.k. If the "saw cut" is past the end of the arc, then the shoes need replacing. Check this while someone applies the rear brake for you.