BSA B33, FRONT BRAKE !

I recently did up the front end of my B33 as it had massive fork shake and no brakes ! I rebuilt the forks it already had damper rods fitted , the steering head bearings were replaced , I cleaned and sanded the drum , fitted either ferrodo or girling dark grey shoes, can't quite remember , after going for a ride and bedding them in , for a week ! They are absolutely rubbish , so I removed the front wheel and check the runout of the internal surface and it had .012" runout this has been machined now and is way better , reassembled it ,left it loose , put brake on then tightened etc , did a extensive bedding , they are better but are still shit , like I have a shingle drive (200 metres) without a lot of shingle and if I do 40mph down there and pull them on hard it , slows , slowly and at about 5mph it will start to skid ! , I know it is the 7" half width , but I had a honda trail 250 with better brakes .the front hub is made of steel , has to be otherwise the spokes would just break out of their holes and I can see a steel lining in there as well as it is spot welded around the outer edge very tidy like factory ? , i know cast iron is better , I am going to get the old shoes relinned with the best hi friction material known to man and machine them to the hub diameter, and give that a try and the contact area of the brand new shoes in there now is about 80% , I going to fit a extended brake arm , that might help to , does any one else have any ideas . Cheers

I fitted an extended arm , but you have to spin the brake plate anti-clockwise and make a new brake stop ( made mine out of an Allen bolt ) or the cable run is wrong . Not hard to do , I am no engineer. Mine is a lot better but I would never describe it as good , keep toying with the idea of making it 2LS good luck

phippsy said:

I fitted an extended arm , but you have to spin the brake plate anti-clockwise and make a new brake stop ( made mine out of an Allen bolt ) or the cable run is wrong . Not hard to do , I am no engineer. Mine is a lot better but I would never describe it as good , keep toying with the idea of making it 2LS good luck

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I see what you mean , I will have a trial fit up this week end and see where the Lazer cut squares place the lever in relation to cable exiting its hole . Cheers

phippsy said:

I fitted an extended arm , but you have to spin the brake plate anti-clockwise and make a new brake stop ( made mine out of an Allen bolt ) or the cable run is wrong . Not hard to do , I am no engineer. Mine is a lot better but I would never describe it as good , keep toying with the idea of making it 2LS good luck

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I gave the new arm a quick polish and my cable seems to line up better than before, my arm would be pretty close to 90 degrees to cam , been down the driveway , it is a little better ,but will road test soon , it's damp out at the moment , hate to risk the front wheel locking up ! I'm sure I will be looking for something better to be glued on , maybe like those metal copper type disc pads , it needs something. Heading for breakdown soon ! .

Shelby-Right said:

I am going to get the old shoes relinned with the best hi friction material known to man and machine them to the hub diameter, and give that a try and the contact area of the brand new shoes in there now is about 80%

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At the same time machine the shoes to be floating instead of fixed, I did that by using B25/B44 late rear shoes which are Triumph type fully floating and filing the sides so they fitted. Improved the brakes well but still not enough to match my 7" TLS so then went to 8" Single sided as fitted to the B44 Victor Special but you also need to machine the right side fork slider.

kommando said:

At the same time machine the shoes to be floating instead of fixed, I did that by using B25/B44 late rear shoes which are Triumph type fully floating and filing the sides so they fitted. Improved the brakes well but still not enough to match my 7" TLS so then went to 8" Single sided as fitted to the B44 Victor Special but you also need to machine the right side fork slider.

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Thanks for your reply I think I have a slight springy Ness in my lever and although I'm getting contact that could be why it's not as solid as it should be , like your suggestion with triumph floating shoes , do you know if there is any reason that would cause an issue, if I was to elongate the pivot, this would let the shoe settle to the drum diameter , do you think this would work ok . Cheers

Shelby-Right said:

if I was to elongate the pivot

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That is one way to achieve fully floating, I did this on the 8" single sided shoes by milling the circle on the fixed end into a slot. You only need 1/4" or even less. The Triumph fully floating shoes have this done already but come with modern linings when bought new which you have already found are rubbish, as you have had your originals get these relined and then elongate the pivot hole but only in the horizontal plane, doing it on the vertical plane effectively loses you lining thickness as the shoe moves away from the drum.

Thanks , while on the subject of brake shoes offered , on one website three choices were offered
Girling , ferodo and newfren , had you tested or tried any of these , my replacements were girling .cheers

I get mine relined and fitted with MZ gold lining developed for fork lift trucks, RGM use it on Norton rear shoes to good effect. After trying Ferodo which were useless I refuse to use modern shoes and solely reline. Some of the modern shoes use metric thickness linings so they are 1/2 worn before you start. Girling is not Girling, just a brand rented and used by Wassel.

kommando said:

I get mine relined and fitted with MZ gold lining developed for fork lift trucks, RGM use it on Norton rear shoes to good effect. After trying Ferodo which were useless I refuse to use modern shoes and solely reline. Some of the modern shoes use metric thickness linings so they are 1/2 worn before you start. Girling is not Girling, just a brand rented and used by Wassel.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.bcafrictionmaterials.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2-bca-friction-materials-data-sheet-mz-gold-woven-lining.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwj71ryLzduFAxUuXUEAHYpgCy4QFnoECBIQAQ&usg=AOvVaw0ESy0NX3DIvjd1f20SkVMP

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Thanks , I couldn't get that link to work but my wireless connection is rubbish , but found BCA in aussy, I've emailed them to see if they can sell me some or let me know if it's available in NZ . Hopefully someone will give me a brake ! cheers.

The odd link was me trying to use an android tablet.

Proper link for posterity

kommando said:

The odd link was me trying to use an android tablet.

Proper link for posterity

https://www.bcafrictionmaterials.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/2-bca-friction-materials-data-sheet-mz-gold-woven-lining.pdf

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I emailed BCA twice from their website , even just asking who they supplied in NZ , but dissapointingly NO reply sent, I went to a local brake relining guy and he had a few new old bits of something very similar there , so he trimmed it up and glued it on for me , and we arched them on his grinder/sander for minimum clearance and I have just put the wheel back on and Fantastic , alot better and not even properly bedded in . Check out my Mural post it's quite cool . Thanks.