Please help!
Hi, has any one else experienced this and managed to cure it. I purchased the 8" Brake conversion from the Spares Company a while back but did did not fit them straight away. They have been on the bike for about 3 years now but what with lock down I would say that they have not completed more than a 1000 miles in total. After initial fitment all was good until around 200 miles when the front brake would squeal when coming to a final halt. I decided to strip out the front wheel in case I had incurred any grease loss from the nilos seals but all appeared dry. The shoes had some blackened/glazed appearance to the shoes but quite uniform with contact over 80% of the shoe, so I cleaned this up with glass paper as well as the inside surface of the drum.
Having put it all back together the brake was quiet and appeared to be bedding in nicely, quite an improvement over the old Rapide set up which I was very pleased with. During all this time only normal moderate braking had been applied albeit with a sidecar. However after another 200 to 300 miles the horrendous brake squeal returned, its noise severity could be increased or decreased by the amount of brake pressure applied.
This time as well as cleaning up the shoes and drums I applied copper slip to the pivot pins and to the faces of the cam to shoes. I also inspected the adjustment of the fork spindles and headstock bearings. Although not bad I decided to replace the headstock cups, cones and bearings and to readjust the fork spindles. Again all was quiet for the next 200 or so miles.
I contacted the spares company for there opinion although they had not received any other concerns on 8" SLS brake. They advised me to chamfer the ends of the linings, which they already had been from new.
This year I have removed and sold the side car (although not to blame) as I fancied going solo again, cleaned up the front brake during the return to solo adjustments and replaced the front and rear tyres. All was good but now the brake squeal has returned. I have decided to see whether it will improve overtime but I am now having to transfer to rear brake application in town which I am not happy with due to the embarrassing squeal so need to cure this.
As a foot note even moving the bike by hand around the garage the brake will squeal.
Thanks, Alan
Hi, has any one else experienced this and managed to cure it. I purchased the 8" Brake conversion from the Spares Company a while back but did did not fit them straight away. They have been on the bike for about 3 years now but what with lock down I would say that they have not completed more than a 1000 miles in total. After initial fitment all was good until around 200 miles when the front brake would squeal when coming to a final halt. I decided to strip out the front wheel in case I had incurred any grease loss from the nilos seals but all appeared dry. The shoes had some blackened/glazed appearance to the shoes but quite uniform with contact over 80% of the shoe, so I cleaned this up with glass paper as well as the inside surface of the drum.
Having put it all back together the brake was quiet and appeared to be bedding in nicely, quite an improvement over the old Rapide set up which I was very pleased with. During all this time only normal moderate braking had been applied albeit with a sidecar. However after another 200 to 300 miles the horrendous brake squeal returned, its noise severity could be increased or decreased by the amount of brake pressure applied.
This time as well as cleaning up the shoes and drums I applied copper slip to the pivot pins and to the faces of the cam to shoes. I also inspected the adjustment of the fork spindles and headstock bearings. Although not bad I decided to replace the headstock cups, cones and bearings and to readjust the fork spindles. Again all was quiet for the next 200 or so miles.
I contacted the spares company for there opinion although they had not received any other concerns on 8" SLS brake. They advised me to chamfer the ends of the linings, which they already had been from new.
This year I have removed and sold the side car (although not to blame) as I fancied going solo again, cleaned up the front brake during the return to solo adjustments and replaced the front and rear tyres. All was good but now the brake squeal has returned. I have decided to see whether it will improve overtime but I am now having to transfer to rear brake application in town which I am not happy with due to the embarrassing squeal so need to cure this.
As a foot note even moving the bike by hand around the garage the brake will squeal.
Thanks, Alan