My little cone episode kinda freaked me out, and I started worrying about my rear brake. To tell you the truth it kinda felt like it locked up that day, not only that but it always squeaks when I apply the brake.
So seeing as the muffler was off, and therefore probably easier to get to the rear tire, I decided to take it off.


I'm thinking about giving Clymer a piece of my mind though!!
The manual said to be sure not to put rear tire on driven pulley, but put wheel on 2 pieces of wood. I carefully did so, just to have pulley fall off rear tire on my big toe! OUCH!
Lucky though, did not damage pulley, cushioned fall with toe.
Anyway, I need help with the brake shoe issue, they look fat enough, but it looks like they are rusted, and utterly pitted.


And this is the thickness, definitely more then 1.5 mm.


Also the manual says to check the rubber cushions. Do these still look good?


Rightclick and view image to see the photo larger.

I just did my back breaks a couple weeks ago. I think there's no problem with the pully falling off when the wheel came off. Mine seemd to have a "relaxed fit" in there and came out on it's own as well. It was my first time with the bike and I got a little nervous too as there seems to never be anything easy about doing brakes on a car. I also have a little play in my rubber thangs too. I've got about 20k on my bike (9k by previous owner/s) but everything seems to be pulling just fine on the highway when riding. Unless I hear otherwise from this group I'm not going to worry.

My rear brakes were squeaking at every use on the last 4k+ trip I did to Miami and back. I figured they were well past needing to be redone. Babied them all the way home, bought new ones and took off the back tire. They were the same thickness as the new ones and had the same sort of look as your old ones. I think I may not be adjusting the rears tight enough and not using them hard enough to get any thing other than this slight wear. I went ahead and changed them anyway. I'm thinking I'll take a little sand paper to the old ones when it's time to change again to rough them up a bit and give them a try in a year or two.

Jack

They look good to me,do what Droopy said,and you can take a file and file down the ends of the brake shoe material to more of an angle.also put some disc brake quiet(available at most autoparts stores)where the brake shoes touch mounting points.

azjay wrote on 12/31/69 at 16:00:10:

Yep I guess I should have thought of wearing shoes!
Truthfully I'm always barefooted or in slippers; it's too hot to wear shoes here. The only time I actually wear shoes/boots, is on the bike.

Instead of answering each and everyone, I'm just gonna say thanks to all. (being lazy today!)

I put grooves 4 or 5  across both rear brake shoes, deep enough to keep almost 1/2 of the brake shoe from engaging the drum. It did a LOT to stop the rear from locking up so easily. Now, I can use my brake without dragging the raer tire all over the place. Gotta taper the edges of the grooves, too.

Great suggestions! What grit sandpaper would be good?
Also my ex suggested that I wear a mask when sanding the shoe down; he said that it probably has asbestos in it.

I agree with Greg.   The savage locks the rear break very easily.   I have locked up my rear wheel about 3 times on emergency stops.    You can't just "slam" on the rear break.  You have to learn how much break you can give it on the back...and squeeze the life out of the front break because it will never lock up (at least on mine).