Do you have alignment marks on the brake pedal and that front shaft that the spring attaches to? I could just be full of it.

Scott

It’s worth checking Scott. I’m fairly certain that spring is the factory spring, it doesn’t make sense that it doesn’t work any better than that. It was late in the day, I’ll check again tomorrow, thanks.
 
I'm not sure about your early model but on the later ones, there are alignment marks clearly stamped into the splined shaft and brake pedal .....

Hpqf0t5.jpg


That return spring certainly doesn't look right, doing nothing like that. Brake arm angle on the brake plate and the amount of threads showing on the brake rod don't look right either. Maybe some other XS2 owners can comment on this stuff and help you out. I think the arm on the back of the pedal splined shaft is tilted back too far.
 
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I'm not sure about your early model but on the later ones, there are alignment marks clearly stamped into the splined shaft and brake pedal .....

Hpqf0t5.jpg


That return spring certainly doesn't look right, doing nothing like that. Brake arm angle on the brake plate and the amount of threads showing on the brake rod don't look right either. Maybe some other XS2 owners can comment on this stuff and help you out. I think the arm on the back of the pedal splined shaft is tilted back too far.

Sounds good , thanks. I’ll start over tomorrow see if I can align things better.
 
Mailman I see alignment marks on both of my XS2s. Very faint on the shaft. I looked at the one that is still complete and the spring is tight. I think you don't have the peddle indexed correctly on the shaft.
 
Hay, Bob!
Here's your morning read:

http://www.xs650.com/threads/strange-rear-brake-problem.49332/

Like GLJ noted, it looks like your brake pedal pivot shaft (part #31 in the attached pics) is simply angled too far rearward.

And, the rear wheel brake lever is pointing too far aft.

Disconnect the brake rod from the brake lever at the rear wheel.
Check the alignment dots on the shaft and pedal.
70-73-RearBrakePetal.jpg


Note, I have my stop bolt fitted upside-down. This way the bolt head gets the battering, not the thread end.

Align the dots, slide the pedal about 1/3 of the way onto the shaft, rotate the pedal down (you'll be fighting the return spring) until the pedal's stop bolt clears the stop tab on the frame, finish sliding the pedal onto the pivot shaft. You'll have to hold the shaft to keep it from sliding inboard.

Note that if the pivot shaft is angled too far rearward, not only will the return spring be loose, but the rear brake light switch spring will be too slack.

After the brake pedal is assembled onto the pivot shaft, you should be able to see where the rear wheel's brake lever should be angled (usually slightly rearward, just shy of nearly vertical).

Adding a buncha pics for reference.
 

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2 M gives some good info but just some additional from the old parts bike here in NY.

First things first the spring on mine measures 2 1/8 from inside of hook to inside of hook.
Rod going back to read drum is 22 1/8 inches long from center of pin at front to rear most ens of the threaded end.

First picture shows the brake lever with the spring holding it up in resting position but no stretch on spring.

Brake lever resting on spring.JPG



Not the clearest image but you can see the match marks on lever and shaft, both are at 12 o"clock position with just the weight of lever holding slack out of spring but not any stretch.
Lever match marks.JPG


This is the view from inside of frame showing the spring while it is just holding the foot lever up.
Back side of linkage spring holding up lever.JPG


If you need more pictures, say with the rear brake installed I'll have to put the swing arm back in frame!

And if the batteries in my camera and the first spare set I grabbed were not dead I would have beat 2M to the reply! But my pictures would still be of nasty dirty parts so Mailman might not even want to see them!
 
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Yep the other guys nailed it. The brake arm is not indexed properly. Now for the steel brake line. If your nuts are rounded I would source a good brake shop and have them make me a new line. Im pretty sure you can buy those metric fittings and metric brake lines. They a usually doubled flared and a good shop should be able to handle it. The rubbers should work from HVC cycle. Although they are a bit different
 
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By the looks of the master cylinder cover it looks like you are useing a new master cylinder. Will it accept the stock brake switch which is mounted under the lever.
 
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“ What I lack in skill, I make up for in enthusiasm.” :)

DO OVER DAY.........

So I went right at that whole rear brake conundrum today. Armed with fresh insight, supplied by some of my favorite people, I just want to say thank you all for taking the time to respond and take photos and measurements and get me pointed in the right direction, because I was going down the wrong track. I was ready to go shopping for a new spring.
Here is where I was starting this morning, this photo was taken AFTER I cleaned dirt out of the alignment mark on the pedal and a smear of fresh grease on the shaft that had filled in the dot. As soon as I cleaned everything up I had an AHA moment!
11DF6BBC-D5FD-4E98-9ADA-0DDABBCB15DA.jpeg


I saw the mark on the pedal yesterday, but I honestly thought it was a nick. Once I relocated the pedal on the shaft, everything fell into place.
DCC39E98-BD39-435B-9AA0-AF4EF7B5BFA1.jpeg


There was now tension on the return spring, the pedal snaps right back into place when you let off of it. You can see the gaps in the spring coils now because it has tension on it.
8F65D212-75BA-46C0-B9F8-B10D891751AE.jpeg

Here is the view from the other side.
C8D9E80F-CB2C-479A-9534-A64A8DCADB05.jpeg


With the pedal properly situated , I relocated the rear arm to a more vertical position and hooked it up and set the free play on the pedal and viola! Works like a charm and with the brake pedal fully depressed the rear arm is close to vertical.
2E6272EF-F765-43A0-8D1F-D7506BC58EEE.jpeg
D33B5B31-EE48-4483-8A80-158F61B6AD35.jpeg

Thanks again guys, I really mean it.

After that I want to start mounting things that the wiring harness will hook up to, figuring out all the routing and such is a big job.
So with that in mind I grabbed my ignition switch out of the container I had it in. I have already had it all apart and cleaned it and shined up the contacts and replaced the roached wiring sheath with new silver loom and reconditioned the rubber mount.
9DEDD03D-E42C-417D-9BDE-9B72D01A3BA0.jpeg


Here it is installed.

ACDF9148-B997-4630-ADBA-7B2A339E00D7.jpeg


Then I broke out my refurbished instruments. That was a whole thread by itself, THANK YOU 2M!!
2357EAFB-C757-4AF5-9167-A99995E17A03.jpeg

Before I installed the speedometer I wanted to replace the little dust boot that goes over the tripometer shaft.
I mangled the original one when I was dismantling the speedo, so I found another on eBay.
90B019A2-1312-424A-B78D-08CFBD9952BE.jpeg


This was a bit tricky trying to install it with the chrome cover still on, doing the whole thing with a fine screwdriver, but I won!
30F93406-1A93-4593-8879-2ECB86FFA594.jpeg


Then I installed my new rubber mounts that will be replacing the totally rotted originals.
EA11477C-0FA8-46C4-83F5-50FAC5F6AD44.jpeg


And installed my instruments, a couple of times actually because I had the wiring mis routed. My reference photos are a gold mine! So many times I think I’ve done something in a way that looks right to me and then I check my reference photos and re do It!
0F150B37-592F-4565-ADDC-66B6D15AA760.jpeg
9579B63B-8DE6-4A07-B543-A588C8D8A889.jpeg


This post is getting pretty big, so I’m going to close it. Coming up in a few minutes I’m going to look at my master cylinder arrangement and answer some questions.
Later,
Bob :thumbsup:
 
Now for the steel brake line. If your nuts are rounded I would source a good brake shop and have them make me a new line.

By the looks of the master cylinder cover it looks like you are useing a new master cylinder. Will it accept the stock brake switch which is mounted under the lever.

To answer your questions, regarding that specially shaped steel brake line that mounts into the caliper,
AA63818A-E7BA-4550-BC36-A6EDE05AC38B.jpeg
35E6AE81-2AC9-4AB3-A76D-FE0B6CBB00A7.jpeg

The flat sides of the nuts are still ok, what was giving me fits is the threaded end that screws into the caliper, they were messed up right at the beginning of the threads and the line kept wanting to cross thread into the caliper.
What I did to remedy this was to file off the first row of threads (still lots of threads to catch) so that it would quit cross threading.

Now about the master cylinder, you may remember that I was unable to rebuild the old master due to excessive corrosion, so yes the master is new. I wanted to keep the original round screw off cap so it would look as original as possible, but that style does not come with a brake light switch and it will not accommodate the original brake light switch without machining the master to accept the specialized hardware associated with it. So I will be using a pressure activated brake switch.
7E7D181F-D0B0-49DE-AE49-273B42584D98.jpeg
E0EC130E-5989-4CB1-8A22-25ED8892B932.jpeg
830CB14E-F57E-49CA-87A5-51FB1D97E117.jpeg


I will be covering up the switch with a rubber boot and the wiring sheath has been replaced with silver to match the rest of the bikes wiring. It will all be pretty discreet and only the sharp eyed mechanic will notice that it is not original.
98577150-B0ED-48C7-9324-4F09B3D7A0AE.jpeg


That’s all for today! Later,
Bob
88B1ACAD-27BB-4570-83A8-0DF40FFD2D99.jpeg
 
Looking Good.
When you had the speedo apart you should have set it back to all zeros. Because that's what the bike is going to look like.:D
View attachment 133987
Yours is going to make mine look like a :poo:

Yours is going to be great, it’s actually more like the kind of work I had first envisioned doing on mine. Mine kinda got away from me. :D
 
Now to nit pick a bit. This hardware is not up to the rest of the bike's standards. The 2 screws and washer on the left are dingy. And the washer on the right is not centered.
upload_2019-1-27_18-31-55.png

Plus the angle of the bodangle of the speedo guide doesn't look right.:laugh2:
upload_2019-1-27_18-39-3.png
 

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Now to nit pick a bit. This hardware is not up to the rest of the bike's standards. The 2 screws and washer on the left are dingy. And the washer on the right is not centered.
View attachment 133993
Plus the angle of the bodangle of the speedo guide doesn't look right.:laugh2:
View attachment 133995

I’m calling that PATINA AND CHARACHTER! Haha! Don’t want it to look so perfect I’m afraid to ride it! :cool:
 
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