[guzzi-singles] Lodola Brake Help

[Mike Peavey]

Getting to the last of the projects on the, new to me, 175 Lodola and I have run into a front brake issue. I had the shoes relined at Phoenix Friction in Toronto and I assume they know what they are doing. On return, we mounted them on the backing plate spaced them out as if slightly actuated/open, mounted it all in a lathe and arced them sufficiently to fit in the drum., this by the way is the early Lodola half width drum. While I had everything apart, I also replaced the wheel bearings with new sealed bearings and cleaned and sanded the drum surface, which looks decent, though not perfect.
Here's the problem, not only do they not stop particularly well, on hard application, there is an odd loud harmonic groan from the front end. I put the full width brake wheel from my 235 Lodola on and all is fine, so it is something to do with the 175 wheel/drum. I next removed the shoes, mounted them side by side in a vise and removed a little more material from the expanding end of the shoes with a rasp....this resulted in slightly better performance and slightly less noise on application.
The question is, am I on the right track? should I keep going with more arcing? Is there a point when the shoes get bedded in and things will improve? Or what next?

Thanks,
Mike Peavey
Boston

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[peh...@comcast.net]

Find out how much contact is made between the shoes and the drum.  Use a piece of chalk and draw a line down the complete center of each shoe face.  Ride around the block and apply the brakes a few times.  Disassemble and inspect.  How much of the chalk line has been removed.

After you have 'mostly' arced them on a lathe, you can get adhesive backed sandpaper and stick that to the inside of the drum.  Assemble and turn the wheel by hand.  Set up a static brake adjusting system so that you can dial in contact between shoe and drum.  Adjust it for just minimal contact.  While turning the wheel, add adjustment to the shoes.  You will gradually peel off a bit of brake compound to make a perfect match from shoe to drum.

Patrick Hayes
Fremont CA

[Jerry Kimberlin]

On 5/9/2010 6:27 AM, Mike Peavey wrote:

> Getting to the last of the projects on the, new to me,
> 175 Lodola and I have run into a front brake issue.

> Is there a point when the shoes get
> bedded in and things will improve? Or what next?

Once shoes get bedded in they will be different. I found
that the drum surface makes a big difference. The problem
in improving the drum is that they get too thin if you turn
them much. Then the drums have to be relined as well as the
shoes in order to salvage them.

The drums will "sing" if there is any wavy-ness in there.
It doesn't seem like concentric wear marks hurt much, though.

Once arced correctly, bedding in will get rid of the noise.

JerryK

[Mike Peavey]

Patrick and Jerry, 

Thanks very much for the help.

The chalk method along with the doublesided tape/sandpaper finishing seemed to do the trick.   Something very odd must have happened on the arcing on the lathe, because one shoe was barely touching the drum.  We used the same fixture and method on the rear shoes and they were perfect...?? mis-alignment of some sort I suspect.

The front brake is now much more effective with much less noise which seemed to grow less and less as I rode the bike yesterday. 

Stucchi has new 175 shoes for 19.60€ the pair, so I've got a set of those coming.   I had already gotten a new set of rears which were shod with Ferodo "Competezione" material, who knows why, from Harpers.

This has been Lodola week, I'm also in the process of replacing the piston on the 235, which got pretty well shredded from being shown the whip a bit too much on the Giro East event a couple of weeks ago.  The King of Pistons was very responsive and though considerably pricer (120€ v. 80€)than the piston I got from him two years ago, one is on it's way.

Anxious to get both bikes up and running at the same time to see how they compare.   Though this 235 may not be representative, given that it has an 18" rear wheel, aftermarket exhaust, making it sound like a vacuum cleaner, and a "cheater" PHBL carb.   Still have not sorted out what makes a 175 "Sport" different from a 175..from what I can see, displacement, compression, gearing, riding position all seem the same?

Thanks again,

Mike Peavey

Boston

Find out how much contact is made between the shoes and the drum.  Use a piece of chalk and draw a line down the complete center of each shoe face.  Ride around the block and apply the brakes a few times.  Disassemble and inspect.  How much of the chalk line has been removed.

After you have 'mostly' arced them on a lathe, you can get adhesive backed sandpaper and stick that to the inside of the drum.  Assemble and turn the wheel by hand.  Set up a static brake adjusting system so that you can dial in contact between shoe and drum.  Adjust it for just minimal contact.  While turning the wheel, add adjustment to the shoes.  You will gradually peel off a bit of brake compound to make a perfect match from shoe to drum.

Patrick Hayes

Getting to the last of the projects on the, new to me,

[Nick Thomas]

Hey Mike - how did you contact Stucchi?  Phone or email?   I sent them an email in Italian and they never responded.  Is there anyone in particular that you dealt with?

Thanks,

-Nick

[Mike Peavey]

Nick, 

I've had pretty good luck with questions in English in the past, though often very slow,  and I'll check those emails to see if there is a specific name associated with the reponses.

 

This time, I went to the web site, clicked on the Union Jack for English and plowed through the  newly designed product offerings by alphbetical heading. It's very odd that their search function does not appear to accept part numbers. Anyway, I placed my order and in the remarks, asked about a couple of parts I could not find listed.  In about 12 hrs. Got a reply that they had received the order and were looking into the additions. Then this morning, I had email saying as soon as the order was ready for shipping, they would be in touch for payment.  When you place the order online, they do not have a "checkout" section for payment, that comes later.

Of course, now we'll actually see if it all gets done and/or how long it'll take.

Best, 

Mike    

[Charles Mullendore]

When I was buying Galletto parts from Stucchi, my contact was Lisa. When I emailed them recently, I received no response. Charlie http://www.AntietamClassicCycle.com --- On Wed, 5/12/10, Mike Peavey <mpe...@comcast.net> wrote: