Grimeca drum brake problems

[Jethro Airhead]

Has anyone had any experience with the Grimeca 230mm four leading shoe front brake? I've installed a new one in my TX650A but there's a problem. The linked actuating arms on the left brake plate work fine when the brake lever is squeezed, but those for the right will not return to the 'resting' state when the lever's released...they need a slight tap to go back. I've had a look at the shoe assemblies, both sides seem the same, and both home-made cables are the right length, with no great free play.

From letters in Brit classic bike mags, it seems Grimeca's quality control isn't crash hot - I really hope this isn't so for mine, because the factory isn't making big drums any more. (Or does that point to something?)

 

[Tomterrific]

Two places I can think could help. One is Vintage Brake: http://www.vintagebrake.com/index.html
Michael M. Morse is extremely knowledgeable and is free with his knowledge.

The other is the motorcycle chassis email list. This is a list of real motorcycle designers that build state of the art racing bikes for all sorts of venues. Someone on the chassis list will know what to do and many are in Oz.

Sorry I can't help but my thought might be to pull the return springs and find the sticky part that way.

Tom

 

[Jethro Airhead]

Many thanks for that tip, Tom: I'll follow it up with Michael Moss now. Even though I've had a look at the shoes to ensure things looked the same, I haven't actually taken the shoes off the backing plates - they seem to move freely when actuated by hand, but they may be binding on the pivot pin...or they mightn't be. Thanks very much for your help.

 

[Curtis P]

Can you pull the backing plate off, knock out all the actuators and clean them up and apply a thin coat of white grease and install again?

 

[Jethro Airhead]

Thanks Curtis - that's how I'm thinking at the moment...I have a free morning tomorrow, I know how I'm going to spend it now. A process of elimination. Thanks for the advice. Cheers.

 

[robweeve]

curious, Jethro, were you able to resolve your problem?