Back brakes - adjustable or not?

[Maffoo]

Im rebuilding a cb250
when i put the back wheel in & set everything up after replacing the cush drive i found that the back brakes werent working too well. they seemdd to work ok when i rode it out of the place i bought it, but now, nada.
the shoes seem to have a fair bit of meat left on them, & adjusting the bolt up the rod at the connection only really seems to lower the pedal, not tighten the shoes up in the drum.
question then - it appears that by removing the lever off the spindle that moves the shoes, & moving it a notch or few clockwise, then reattaching it to the rod, i can adjust the shoes out. I have been fixing cars my whole life (only mine generally) but this is my first bike. This looks a bit dodgy, but appears to work.
Is this normal practice to adjust the brakes or not?
this appears to realyl be the only way of adjusting brake shoes on the bike... & every car ive had with drum brakes has had an adjuster on it....is it the same with bikes?

help :)

[James Deuce]

I haven't been able to find a CB250N manual but this is a link to the Common Service Manual for Honda motorcycles and ATVs.

It may have some clues

http://www.nighthawk750.com/maint/commonservicemanual.html

You could also try going through this thread.

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=10556&highlight=manuals

[imdying]

If they drum is oversizse, then even new shoes won't help you ge the activation cam into the correct position, and you'll have to do the move the lever on the spline thing. That's not the optimal way to adjust the brakes though, you end up with a brake that runs out of activation cam before maximum force is applied. To avoid this, take the drum (wheel) and the shoes to a brake specialist, get them to bond them oversize, and then radius grind them back to suit the drum... just like you would on a car. This lets all of the adjusters work in the correct travel/range etc.

[merv]

I haven't worked on those sorts of drum brakes for a while but it was normal to shift the lever on the spline if you ran out of travel. However, you can only do it up to the point that when you brake hard it doesn't flip over the cam. If that isn't likely to happen, then sweet!