I must be lucky after 49+ years of ownership of my Norton I am still running my original stud axle, have replaced the rear brake cable once but that was a frayed cable more than anything but had to install a strong spring to make the pedal come back better to its mount, I am not a heavy user of my rear brakes just more use it to slow the back wheel down when using the front brakes, but then I am not a heavy user of brakes while out riding, I can slow my Norton and my other bikes down without using my brakes while up in the twisties, but its good I have a well set up front brake system on my Norton when I do need it, as the original front brakes weren't the best when they got old and they usually fail when you do need to use them in an emergency as mind did without any warning before hand, lucky it was a slow speed downing.