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What "pads" (shoes) are you using? In my experience, the shoes from MG Cycle and other parts suppliers aren't all that great in several respects: 1) the aluminum casting aren't well finished and usually require a little work to fit correctly, 2) the friction material used doesn't seem to be suited to the job.IMO, the best bet is to have the original shoes relined. With what compound and by who? Two question I need to answer myself since my "local" shop closed up a few years ago. I'll be talking to these guys as soon as I have a chance:https://industrialbrakeclutch.com/classic-cars-and-motorcycles-brake-clutch-relining/Bead blasting the drum helps to bed the shoes in quicker and makes them work better afterwards. Cable: the original brake cables had a thick (nearly 3 mm) inner wire of tightly wound strands and an outer housing that was wound of square section wire. Very little stretch when the brakes were applied. Most off-the-shelf cables available now (especially those from European suppliers) have a much thinner inner wire of not particularly tightly wound strands and an outer housing wound from round section wire. The result is a cable that is very stretchy, and gives little braking power or feedback. Add a switch into that and they're useless. The only ready-made cables that are even worth buying in my opinion are those made by Barnett. They not perfect, but far better than others. MG Cycle sells a few cables made by them, any with a "B" at the end of the part number.
I am 90% sure these are new shoes bought from MG Cycle in the last 5-6 years... I have a ton of receipts & docs from PO and it looks like he thought he could buy everything repro from them and it would all fit together like a lego set. I have deff struggled with the cables. I even had to take the oem barrel adjusters off my stock levers on the parts bike and swap them onto the shiny new repro levers he had mounted because the cable ends were so loose in the barrel adjusters. Dont even get me started on the sugar cube petcocks (ended up fitting the tonti-era ones when I couldnt stop the leaking).as for now I have some used brake shoes installed and those are better. I will take my front wheel from the parts bike to a local machine shop I know with a brake lathe, I am going to have them look at it and see if they could skim the rotors--I will check on the bead blasting while I am there, thank you for that.Do you know of anyone around that would rechrome my stock headers?Also, I am so sure that my choke lever is mounted correctly, but the lever fouls at about halfway thru its travel? This is with it mounted on the front brake lever mount & using the CEV pillbox switches on both sides. Does that ring a bell?
We discussed this at length over on the LoopFrame forum. You can't just arc the shoes to match the drum.Thus, you have to arc Guzzi shoes when they are installed onto the backing plate and have all of the adjusters in place. You can then gently spin the whole lot and cut the friction material on the shoes for a maximum amount of drum contact. Not easy.Patrick HayesFremont CA
does that mean you have to remove the shoe, cut material, re-install and adjust again each cut to check at each step incrementally?
does that mean you have to remove the shoe, cut material, re-install and adjust again each cut to check at each step incrementally? Sorry, I have only ever seen a pic of a brake shoe cutter that Cliffrod sent me this AM... total neophite on this subject.
There's always the Ural way.Make up a sanding block with 80 grit paper and lightly sand the surface of each shoe. Assemble the brake to the bike and apply the brakes while spinning the wheel by hand. Hard application is not necessary. Just get drum shoe contact while still being able to rotate wheel. Disassemble the brake and shoes will be marked where they contacted the drum. Sand the marking off the shoe with the sanding block. Keep repeating this assemble, brake,check, sand until you have a shoe that is completely marked after the test. That shoe matches the drum and the fit will become intimate after a bit of break in.PS The Vintage BMW guys refine with 232AF ( http://www.stillchampion.com/232af.html. )