Brake woes

markyp2000 wrote: I still say slacken off handbrake cable and adjust the rear brake shoes to the drum then readjust the hand brake

That is the correct way to do it i do this on every full service and allways get good feed back from my customers

I have to slacken it off at the tunnel, is that correct?

Or here

I was thinking while it was hissing down with rain and thundering in the middle of the night that I can't see how the handbrake circuit interacts with the footbrake on a hub in such a way that it would prevent the footbrake from doing anything. If the handbrake is at rest with there being no tension or pulling from the cables and the adjuster is up so I can just get the drum on surely the slave would give a decent showing of at least 100 out of 150.
Putting it another way, if the handbrake cable were removed so the (adjustment) lever in the drum were at rest and the ratchet was adjusted so the drum just cleared the shoes then the footbrake must give a better showing than 40/150??

It says in the CD to have the handbrake off and to pump the footbrake 30+ times to get the adjuster to take up the slack.

The brake adjuster adjusts the top of the shoes and ajusting the hand brake adjusts the lower part
Try refacing the shoes with emery paper

I'm with Mark on this.

You must have slack in the handbrake cable for the auto adjuster to work.
So you can still have the footbrake well out of adjustment. (the handbrake can hold the shoes partially on, and leave some free play at the cylinder.)
Slacken off the handbrake adjuster under the centre tunnel.
Actually, it is a kind of compensator, with the handbrake hard on, that bar should be even if everything is well.

Then according to the book, you press the brake pedal hard about 100 times to adjust up the mechanism.

It is also possible to assemble the adjuster forks backwards 4 ways, (obviously the ratchet has to be at the right end, but the forks are not U shaped because one side of the U is for the handbrake lever) I have an idea that the manual has the drawing wrong, best to mirror the side that is working.

If it still doesn't come up even, check the bore of the slave cylinder is the same both sides, it may be an incorrect replacement.

facade wrote: the handbrake can hold the shoes partially on,

Agreed but if the handbrake system is not exerting any pull and is slack at rest so the hub lever (*#4) is fully back then that should be the same as slackening the cable right off.

markyp2000 wrote: The brake adjuster adjusts the top of the shoes and ajusting the hand brake adjusts the lower part

That's something I just don't get as it all seems to adjust/actuate at the top end.

Anyhoooo, good news, the brakes passed . :woohoo: :woohoo: Seems like what I did yesterday made a difference. Interestingly the left brake was down a little while the right one was up a little. The balance was better.
Couple of interesting points.
1. We tried putting a load in the back, I have my seats and everything removed, and the
load balancer was working and brought up the (rear) brake reading.

2. This one is harder to put into words but he suggested that the bigger wheels were making it harder for the brakes to cope on the dyno and suggested returning to the standard size (implying for the test). As a matter of fact I am considering this (though I am loathe to do it) to reduce the load on King Pins, bearings etc. possible shimmy let alone pushing it with the rear brakes.