Problem with Suzuki FA50 rear brakes

[ropati]

Hi

Just replaced the rear brake shoe (drum brakes) and getting very little stopping out of it, also when tightening the adjustment spring if i do it to tight it stops the kick start from working so i have to loosen to start and then tighten before i start riding.

Any ideas on what i could do to fix these problems?

Cheers for your help

[unstuck]

You have the shoes inside out. Turn them round.

Did you bother to clean the drum? Did you leave oily greasy fingermarks on the new shoes? Have you worked on bikes before?

[ropati]

Nah this is my first bike project, how could you tell? haha

I think I cleaned the drum, was pretty rusty so gave it a bit of a sand and polish with a rag, I also made sure the drum was not greasy or had any left overs inside.

Yea I noticed a couple of greasy finger prints on the new brakes so I cleaned them before putting the wheel back on. Used a dry rag no cleaning agents to clean them.

How can they be inside out both sides look identical. Is there a trick I'm missing?

Is the rear drum not supposed to be used as a primary brake? If so I will need to replace the front brakes to.

Any idea what could be causing the kick start not to work?

[Rhys]

Take the shoes out spray the drums and shoes with brake clean and light the shoes.
It burns off the oil

[awa355]

Brakes ??? that's what the kerb is for.

[Banditbandit]

FA = Fuck All ... Fuck All power - fuck all brakes ...

having worked on some similar shit I suspect that the rear drum brake is not going to get any bettr than it is now .. No, it is not the primary brake - the front on is ... and that is probably not going to get any better than it is now - I mean what is it ?? A five inch single leading shoe ??? Crap to start with ..

Way back I worked on my wife's Honda step thru' - and was horriffied at the brakes .. I tried to fix them and failed - in the process I noticed that the front shocks were floppy and useless .. I could pull the shock in and out with my hand with no resistance - I went to the shop and said I wanted knew shocks .. the parts person said "Why?" ... he produced a brand new shock and it was identical in performance to the one off the bike ..

I gave up ... these kinds of bikes are what they are and yours will probably never be any better .. it probably never was to start with ...

I don't mean to sound derogratory - enjoy it for what it is .. I'd have fun on one ... It's just as risky at 50klicks as a hyperbike at 300 ...

[felixx]

Hi there
I dnno where you are getting brakes from, but I got mine off a guy on trademe for $14 a set.
($28 to do front and rear)

They stop the bike well enough

I may have a set of 3/4 new ones I can post you if you want to put the new ones on the front and the 3/4 ones on the rear.