Hitchcocks Forum

Hi ,
after aligning my wheels as previous post i went for ride,all seems ok,but when i stopped to check bike over found brake binding slightly,but releasing brake adjuster nut had no effect.
So off home lets start again,wheels aligned as good as you can get but chains side 4 notches from dot right side on notch still ???? brake now binding a bit more even with brake nut removed!!! HELP do I just get notches same and forget about wheel alignment . any advise gratefully recieved.
and yes I did measure wheel widths with vernier and yes I applied brake when tightening nuts

Checked out AlanRs video and one way of checking was to measure from axle to swinging arm pivot pointand guess what whith wheels aligned chain side measures 389mm right side 385mm,so looks like back to notches,but something not in line????

Are you slackening the brake anchor nut before you make the adjustment then hold the rear brake on while you tighten the chain side ? which you should do, I have found on my bike if you set the adjusters on the same number of clicks the wheel is out of line one does need to be several clicks different to the other, as far as I understand this is quite common, I have had many bikes over many years and found the Enfield chain adjustment does require a bit of a knack, I did find some videos searching on the internet that helped some, it did take some time to get the hang of it good luck

Set up your wheels by "sight of eye", ie. stand well behind the bike and well in front, if wheels look in line its close enough to check that the brake does not bind, if it does then you may need to strip the brake to make sure some item is not failing or it needs cleaning/lubricating. By the way its the way I align the wheels now had enough of all the other methods

Sa, when I removed my rear wheel to tape up the wiring where the tyre had rubbed through, obviously the sprocket and brake stayed clamped to the s/a.
I noticed when I replaced the wheel and put spindle through, before tightening, that the plate on end of s/a thatthe sprocket was fixed to was slewed over to the right a bit, making the wheel point right. The wheel had to be forced back in line which probably would have distorted the brake plate and make it bind?
I hope to be able to use my bench vice to straighten the plate and square it up.

Ray.

Is centre bearing in sprocket in good nick, and also is it correctly positioned? On mine I found that edge of brake shoes can rub inner face of sprocket hub causing slight binding even with brake rod slackened. Since the bearing is driven in to shoulder from outside towards inside, it sort of suggests that bearing is too far home.... which shouldn't be possible, should there be a washer twixt spacer that runs in oil seal and backplate or is this just RE tolerences? Of course gently tapping sprocket away from brake backplate cures it by moving it on bearing, but obviously something doesn't quite match!