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[Lord-Toady]

Hi Ric by does this look like what you mean by "incorrectly positioned along its horizontal axis or has suffered creep from not being secured correctly."?







It looks like the cam bush has moved to the right on its securing bolts and on the other side you can see where it has pushed the paint, there is a wear mark on one corner of the cam itself.

[Wheaters]

The flat sides of the cam should sit at 90 degrees to the rim of the brake plate when the external lever is in the "relaxed" position. Is it just the way the photo makes it look? Yours appears not to do so, but at an angle.

If all is OK in that respect, I'd thoroughly clean out the drum assembly (also clean off the shoes with brake cleaner to remove all the accumulated brake dust) and "de-glaze" the braking surface with some emery cloth. My front brake grabbed until I did this quite recently, it's now far nicer to use.

[Wheaters]

Forget to say, the cam surface should be lightly greased where it bears against the shoes.

[DonMc]

Just a thought, but with the rear brake, on Redditch bikes it can snatch if the brake plate steady nut to the swinging arm is not done up tightly enough and can even snap the swinging arm. Not sure if it is the same with the Indian made bikes.

[ric]

DonMc - all things being equal I would say no. For reasons specific to my bike I run the brake plate with the brake plate lock nut a full turn out and secured in place with loctite so I don't lose it. Absolutely no problems in the last 12,000+ miles.



Lord-Toady - sorry hard to tell from the angle of the photo but if the brake plate hole has been machined in the correct place the cam spindle should sit equidistant from both left and right edges of the hole, any difference up and down on the vertical is fine. With the shoes fitted the hardened face plates should protrude an equal amount either side of the brake cam. the ultimate answer is to fit the aluminium billet brake plate from Fritz Egli

[Lord-Toady]

Hi the nut that secures the drum to the swing arm for moving back and forwards when adjusting the chain did seem a little loose I was expecting it to be hard to undo but it was really easy.





Is that photo clearer the cam does seem to be closer to the right hand side than the right by about 1 or 2 mm and you can see fresh metal where the heads of the bolts look like they have slid towards the right. I have been having a nightmare with my bike lift because there is a gap in the frame for the engine it never feels secure on the jack so dont like having the bike jacked up in the garage.

[Lord-Toady]

Wheaters I have the spring off the lever arm at the minute so the cam is just flapping around 360 degrees.

[ric]

oops , should have said Sommer brake plate - looking at your 3rd photo it would seem the cam does may need repositioning slightly...

[ric]

The uneven wear mark on the cam may be because the cam bush is not sitting squarely to the brake plate or the cam has been badly faced or a combination of the two. I had exactly that problem with mine; it takes a bit of fettling to sort it correctly to get both shoes opening parallel to the brake drum but well worth the effort.

Once all working as intended you should be able to assemble the drum, plate and axle into one piece, apply the brake with your fingers and as you rotate the assembly the axle should fall out unimpeded by contact from the central hole in the brake plate.

[Lord-Toady]

I noticed that the two bolts that attach the cam bush to the plate were pretty much finger tight so they will need tightening up, do you think its worth replacing the cam since it's surface has become a bit deformed and worn now?