Subject: Eldo Front Brake
Author: dbjo-@bellatlantic.net
Date: Jul 4, 2000, 8:31 AM
Post ID: 1701246416
I have a '73 Eldorado with the 2 leading shoe front brake. I had
dismantled the forks on the bike to replace fork seals, and when I
re-mounted the front wheel I ran into problems. When the wheel is on
the bike and the brake cable not attached, the wheel spins freely. When
I attach the cable, and have not yet begun to try to adjust the brake,
the wheel spins freely. When I try to adjust the cable so that the
brake lever is firm, the front wheel essentially becomes "locked up"
while I still don't have good braking results at the lever. I took it
for a 5 mile ride hoping that any necessary re-bedding of the shoes,
etc, would occur and the problem would go away. When I returned home,
the wheel was VERY stiff to spin, and again the brakes didn't work very
well at the lever.
I removed the wheel again, took the brake assembly off the wheel,
checked for problems, nothing. Re-assembled the wheel to the bike, same
thing. I have tried using the adjustors at the wheel and at the lever,
hoping that some balancing of the adjustment would help, with no
improvement.
When I took the wheel off the bike before starting the fork work, the
wheel would spin reasonably freely, and the brakes were firm at the
lever and worked well. I did nothing to the brakes other than a light
coating of grease at the cams and very light roughing up of the shoes
with sandpaper. I don't know what the problem is. All I know is that I
either ride the bike with the front wheel having gobs of drag and still
very marginal brakes, or back off the adjustor at the wheel so that it
spins freely, and have no front brake. Sure would appreciate some
advice here. Thanks!
Dennis Jones