Disassembly of Worksman Front Drum Brake
- Thread starter Tinsmith
- Start date
very few moving parts. they're real easy to work on. no special tools, way easier than a car's drum.
as far as rubbing goes, if it's just a slight drag, that's pretty much par for the course for drum brakes'especially if they're pretty new. on a bicycle, it takes months to break them in so the pads seat.
every drum brake i've ever had, they get better with usage. worksman, and especially sturmey archer, don't work that great when new.
one trick i've learned is to "drag" the brake when you're cruising around. just lightly ride the lever on a nice long straight for awhile. it speeds the seating process. don't worry about overheating it or wearing it out.even on hard, everyday usage, they' ll last a lifetime.
i've got an atom drum from the 60's i've used for almost 3 years and you can barely see any signs of wear. i have to adjust the barrel about every 2 months, and just by a little bit.
i adjust mine by spinning the wheel and get a tiny bit of drag, then back the cable adjuster off a hair, pretty much like a car.
as far as rubbing goes, if it's just a slight drag, that's pretty much par for the course for drum brakes'especially if they're pretty new. on a bicycle, it takes months to break them in so the pads seat.
every drum brake i've ever had, they get better with usage. worksman, and especially sturmey archer, don't work that great when new.
one trick i've learned is to "drag" the brake when you're cruising around. just lightly ride the lever on a nice long straight for awhile. it speeds the seating process. don't worry about overheating it or wearing it out.even on hard, everyday usage, they' ll last a lifetime.
i've got an atom drum from the 60's i've used for almost 3 years and you can barely see any signs of wear. i have to adjust the barrel about every 2 months, and just by a little bit.
i adjust mine by spinning the wheel and get a tiny bit of drag, then back the cable adjuster off a hair, pretty much like a car.
You don't want to glaze the shoes tho. Then they'll start squeaking or squealing when they're cold and you hit em.
An old trick with drum shoes is to put a little bevel on all the sharp edges of the shoe material.
An old trick with drum shoes is to put a little bevel on all the sharp edges of the shoe material.
Well, I got after the front drum brake and as Bairdco said there isn't a whole lot going on in there. Pretty much looks like an old car drum brake. What I found was not a whole lot of the brake pad surface was coming into contact with the drum when applied. I would say about 1/3 of one pad was "shiny" and about 1/2 of the other. I did as suggested by Mr Aleman and took off the edges of the pads and then hit the glazed areas with a file and took them down a bit and roughed the whole pad up. Took her for a spin and it's definitely better, but I can see where Badirco says it will take awhile to get the pads and drum to mesh up properly. I'm not heavy on the brakes and most of my riding is in the open countryside. I figure I'll take the wheel off periodically and watch the progression of the wear and make sure they aren't "glazed" up. Thanks for the comments fellas!
Dan
Dan
