Brake shoes, drums, levers and spreaders, adjustment and issues with new parts

Thanks, your brake design, in what we now know is a crossover of many colours, is different to mine by the looks of it.

My pushrod does not fit onto the shoes in the same way and I must admit I thought the lower spring went round the other way so the the longer bent end acted as a stop for the handbrake lever.

 

I've found that every time the front bar is out of square.

In case of doubt i mean this bit, designed to keep the majority of the lever away from the shoes, not for spacing a washer under.

 

My new levers are not as bent as the old levers, but, if I've understood correctly, the lever should be close to the shoe at the top where the pin holds it and bend away from the shoe. My pictures below show this, but on the new levers, the bend is minimal.

 

Just the light making them look back to front then.

 

The story continues.

Luckily I had a spare handbrake cable as the old one was sticking in the end plastic tube. All new and loose, but the I noticed that the spreader bars on one side was very loose. Remembering an old thread on here
https://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/handbrake-failed-mot.28741/page-2

I did some measurements and have discovered that my spreader bar cut out is 17mm at the handbrake end on both bars. Not a case if wear and tear, but maybe a different size for my previous odd configuration.

Before I order some new spreaderbars, does anybody have a standard bay bar ('78ish) that they could measure the depth of the spreader bar cutouts for me and overall length, that would help.

Thanks

 

If the handbrake lever hits the hub (at rest it should be towards the shoe) in the past I've built up the slot with weld - saves waiting for the postman and a few £.

 

Cheers, with footbrake adjustments done and working, one handbrake side is working and the spreader bar fits tightly before the handbrake is applied, so when applied the lever action operates. But, on the other side, the spreader bar is loose, there is a gap between the lever and the back of the groove and so when applied the lever has nothing to press against...my confusion is that the spreader bars are equal in length and the grooves are both the same depth (17mm) which is much deeper than the link above.

I can weld, badly, so for a few pounds I might buy new if this is the source of the problem

 

So the spreader isn't the problem? Do the cylinders match or is the dodgy side one perhaps shorter from piston to piston?

 

In the spirit of, "I'm a numpty, so it's me that wrong, not the parts" I've taken the brakes apart to see what I've done wrong...


Don't get a big (ger) head @Zed, but I had the lever arms swapped as you said above. In my defence the pin is so loose, my insitu inspection when you asked looked OK.

Back to the spreader bars. They are both exactly the same. I understand that a shorter gap will make the handbrake start sooner. My question here is, should it be tight, or is a bit of a gap normal?

As I've got to buy the circlip retainers anyway, I'm minded to buy new spreader bars anyway, (I appreciate your advice on welding@zed) but will probably buy new when it comes to brakes this time round)


Edit, I'm assuming the lever should be as shown in the photo below?

 

Top spreader looks a few mm shorter notch to notch?
It makes quite a difference as the spreader is so close to the pivot.
Probably just the photo.
Not very technical but I drew the RH line and copied it to the left.

 

Not fitted yet, so I. Ant tell if they will make a difference, but new against old spreader bars, perfectly aligned at the top to shop differences...not what I was expecting, but the distance between the base of both grooves is longer on the new, so this should engage earlier, hopefully.

 

That's what wears. Good luck.

 

Just to update this whilst I go and sulk in a corner, the new spreader arms don't solve the problem.

I've adjusted the brake shoes very carefully, repeatedly pressing the footbrake after each adjustment to make sure they are tight. There is still too much play between the handbrake lever, the spreader bar and the brake shoe. this means I run out of space for the lever to move and available cable adjustment before the handbrake can apply much braking force. It looks like @Zed 's idea to weld the gap will have to be attempted.

I'm slightly miffed that all new parts from Schofield's don't work out of the box.

Enough for today. I'll jump back onto this on Monday.

 

A question for @Sproggy4830. It looks like I may have the same problem you had way back in 2013, a doggy handbrake spreader bar.

https://thelatebay.com/index.php?threads/handbrake-failed-mot.28741/

My question is how well did the weld hold up? I'm going down that route following advice by @Zed and a new bar having the same issue and I was just wondering about your experience.

Thanks

 

If it helps, I have a spreader bar that’s a one year only thing (or so I was told).
I’m sure mine only has a slot at one end, but a bit of welding up has lasted at least 7 years for me.

 

The weld will be harder than the spreader bar and it's only the handbrake. Go for it!

 

I will be sometime this week @Zed. I was also thinking which end of the spreader bar to weld as adjusting either groove achieves the same goal of moving the bar closer to the lever imo. The handbrake side is the obvious side but has a different movement profile to the other side that pushes against the brake shoe in one direction alone. It may not matter, but I might as well do the best side.

 

In all this, is the distance between the brake shoes the same at rest across the brake cylinder ?

Is the slave cylinder a different length such that the spring under the spreader between the shoes is unable to close the shoes together so they are resting on the spreader at rest, with the handbrake cable slack ?
Like changing the spreader has less effect because the cylinder is too long being an incorrect replacement in the past. Wear on the spreader bar makes the problem worse but .

 

Thanks Mike,, I had not looked at that. Without measuring and by memory, the cylinders do compress inward quite far at rest. I'll measure the old and new cylinder bodies later. I did measure the new springs before and they are the same as my old springs.

It has also been suggested offline, that I should look at the shape of the lever arm to see if the curve is the same where the lever sits in the groove. The new lever arm is not as bent in the flat profile as my old (riveted to shoe) style lever. But that should not impact on the problem.

 

I think Mike has it. If this pic is with the brakes adjusted it looks like the adjusters are not out far enough while the slave cylinders pistons are out too far.