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Hey I puchased a 95 T-Dub in October and have been working on it a little bit at a time but now I've jumped in with both feet. I've been adjusting my breaks to get rid of slop in the front brakes. Thinking that the breaks have been wore down I removed the drum but the brakes looked fine and still had plenty of pad left. So I just put it all back together again and adjusted the breaks and they felt fantastic! But then a week later my front brakes were suddenly gone again. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.





Z-Dub on a T-Dub

 

[qwerty]

dija ride thru a crik?

 

[lizrdbrth]

"Gone" as in out of adjustment, or "gone" as in not grabbing?



If they're going out of adjustment in a week your brake cabls is about to break.



If they're actuating, but not grabbing your efforts to "take the slack out" are glazing your brake shoes. Drum brakes need free play.

 

[Rohnsman]

Isn't "Spongy Breaks" a swampy area somewhere in the south where folks like to go riding?

 

[rfactor]

By free play, how much are we talking about, as in how much pull on the lever should be free before the brakes start to grab? I have the same issue and have tightened the brakes down so there's probably only a half inch of lever pull before they grab, I feel like otherwise when I squeeze hard the lever will hit the handlebar...

 

[qwerty]

Spin the front tire and listen for the shoes to drag. If you can't hear them drag, tighten the adjustment a bit. As soon as you hear them drag, squeeze the lever good and hard, release, and spin again. If the brakes no longer drag, tighten a bit more. Squeeze, release, and spin. What you want is a little shhh_shhh_shhh_... from the shoes barely touching the drum as the wheel spins after a hard application via the lever.

 

[lizrdbrth]

Spin the front tire and listen for the shoes to drag. If you can't hear them drag, tighten the adjustment a bit. As soon as you hear them drag, squeeze the lever good and hard, release, and spin again. If the brakes no longer drag, tighten a bit more. Squeeze, release, and spin. What you want is a little shhh_shhh_shhh_... from the shoes barely touching the drum as the wheel spins after a hard application via the lever.

The above procedure, minus the "shh-shh-shhh" part.



Adjust only til that sound barely goes away.

 

[[email protected]]

Thank ya for helping me out on this issue I plan on playing with it once the arkie tornadoes move on by got all the other vehicles in the garage so i cant work on it

 

[qwerty]

The above procedure, minus the "shh-shh-shhh" part.



Adjust only til that sound barely goes away.

The shh-shh-shh will go away before you hit the stop sign at the end of the road. Doesn't really matter about the 1% unless you're racing a super competitive class. Never know the difference on the street. just be sure to spin the tire and apply the brake after each adjustment just to move the shoes to their new neutral position.