Motorcycle Repair: front drum brakes, emery cloth, drum brakes

Question
Hi there i understand you no more about hondas, however im guessing the brake mechanisms are not too dissimilar. I have an AX100 suzuki 1987, it has front drum brakes and when i bought the bike these were not working at all. A friend and i took apart the front drum brake and noticed there was still padding on the two shoes. We fiddled around with tightening and loosening them and have made it so they work but not very well at all. I noticed that when i pulled the lever for the brakes it looked like only one shoe was moving. I am very limited for funds and do not want to take it too a specialist, im sure with a bit of help i can fix them myself! Any help is welcome and greatly appreciated!!! Thanks for your time!!!

Answer
Thomas, I could only find illustrations for a 1994-96 model

http://www.cmsnl.com/suzuki-ax100-1994-r_model13112/partslist/FIG38.html

Take the whole brake panel apart.... clean and lubricate the brake cam shaft and put a drop of grease on the cam flats which contact the ends of the brake shoes.

You mention "padding" on the shoes, but not how much. When they get too thin, the brake adjustment/actuation becomes ineffective, even though there is a bit left on the shoes. Scrub up the surface of the shoes, so they are not shiny and rough up the inside of the brake drum with some emery cloth to break any glazing on the surfaces.

Once you have cleaned all the parts, lubricated moving surfaces, then you can reassemble the brake panel/wheel and look at the position of the brake arm. Some brake arms are splined so you can only attach them in one position. Some can be positioned so that they can be installed one spline one way or the other from "standard" location.

Adjust the cable so the brake shoes are just short of contacting the brake drum and then look at the angle of the arm in relationship to the brake plate.

The brake arm must pull through an arc, starting out before 90 degrees to the ground and finishing a little past that point.

       0 brake cam
arm    I-------- cable


Hope this is helpful.

Bill Silver