Topic: Rear Brake Adjustment

[The Lone Builder]

I'm as happy as a pig in the proverbial! Don't you find that it's the little things that often give the greatest buzz?

Putting things back together after replacing valve and guides, I struggle a bit with getting the head back on; but that's another story...

Yesterday I was replacing the rear brake pedal and couldn't understand why the brake wouldn't work. I hadn't disturbed anything except the pedal and the adjusting nut at the rear wheel; so what could be wrong. Inspection revealed nothing, so I eventually decided to have a beer and sleep on it.

This morning I did what every sensible person does, or should do. I searched this site and found several posts dealing with adjusting the rear brake. Line up the marking dots at front and back, make sure the arm on the front spindle goes between the swinging arm and engine, and away you go.

Well! Firstly my rear cam and brake arm don't have any marking dots; instead there is a smooth portion on the cam that lines up with a slightly wider smooth portion on the the arm. It took me a while to notice this and to see that it allows some adjustment. Pic No 1.

Secondly, the spring on the front spindle has to sit completely on the spindle; otherwise the arm hits the crankcase, hindering forward movement. Pic No 2.

And finally line up the dots which my spindle and pedal do have.

The result? a rear brake that activates with about 1" of pedal travel – perfect! 

Hope this helps someone else still at school.

[bryanj]

You have the early cam and arm that did not have dots, there should only be 1 position the arm fits in as splines in the arm wont go over the plain part of shaft BUT you can carefully file a spline or maybe 2 out of the arm to move it backwards and wear out the shoes more

[The Lone Builder]

That's what I thought too Brian.

however if you look carefully at the pic you can see there is a section of the arm that doesn't have splines. This is wider than the smooth part on the cam, which allows for some movement.

As I have it set now, it is as far clockwise as possible – the new shoes position I guess – but the arm can be rotated anti-clockwise about 2 notches to take account of wear.

[MauiK3]

I remember fiddling a bit when I did that setup.

[Don R]

 I've been fooling with these for years and sometimes I still have to stop and wonder where I missed the rear brake adjustment.

[bryanj]

Enlarging that pic i can tell you some splines have been filed from inside the arm, like i said not uncommon to get more wear out of the shoes

[willbird]

Enlarging that pic i can tell you some splines have been filed from inside the arm, like i said not uncommon to get more wear out of the shoes

My dad before me and myself plainly do not use rear brakes much, my K2 has 59K and counting on the original brake shoes. Guy who worked for my dad was an old school HD roder back in the day and had a 2 cyl 350 then, he did not use FRONT brakes at all. My dad claimed the old HD front brakes did not do much apparently. This dude would have graduated HS in the early 60's I think, he claimed he rode the HD everywhere at 100mph LOL.

[bryanj]

I pdi one of the first 1340 harleys imported into uk and can confirm that the front brakes are utter #$%*e!
As to the 50 yr old rear shoes i would change them as the glue will be giving up

[willbird]

I pdi one of the first 1340 harleys imported into uk and can confirm that the front brakes are utter #$%*e!
As to the 50 yr old rear shoes i would change them as the glue will be giving up

I am getting stuff around to build a new rear wheel, bought a new set of shoes but decided the originals looked like better quality actually.

[bryanj]

They are better quality but i have had the friction materiel come off before

[Don R]

  I've seen the shoes de-laminate but it's usually very corroded when that happens. I wanted a set of those segmented ebc shoes but when I wanted them none were to be found.
 The shoes on my sandcast are original and want to squeal, that makes me nervous.