Hello everyone,
I am servicing a Strumey Archer Steelite rear hub with drum brake, and when opening the brake I discovered some kind of small string in the groove. Is it some kind of old gasket (like the tow that is sometimes still used in plumbing) of just a random piece of debris that got stuck ?
(and secondary question, how do you know if the shoes need to be changed ?)
Thanks !
by loveLisega
4 Comments
I only ever had one bike with these drum brakes to play with, and I didn’t have whatever that is inside it. Probably safe enough to remove it if you want.
Those shoes still look like they got tons of life left, I just lightly sand them down to get whatever contamination is off them and call it good. They’re never gonna brake amazingly, just so you know.
Yes they can be removed. Usually they should be replaced when they show the binding material, squeel. The squeeling more often then not is caused by polished drum and pads. Filing, sanding, and cleaning solves this. NOTE: Sturmey Archer pre 1986 used asbestos as binding compound. Steelite used Iron. Either way, the dust is not great for you, so dont snort it
As far as I know these should not have anything in the way of a gasket or sealing material there anything will in some way impede free movement even if only to a small degree. Chances are this is nothing more than a build up of material over the years so you can get rid,
The shoes look fine to me they have plenty of material left which is good because replacements are getting really hard to get hold of. When the time comes that you do need new ones you need to look on ths shell of the hub for the model number and make sure you only get shoes for that model. There were a good few variants over the years most of them look almost identical but the shoes are not interchangeable they all have slight differences in mounting, size etc.
You only need to change brake shoes if the braking material is worn down to a certain level indicated in the manual, they usually look truly thin if they are worn out, these are fine, clean it all up and close them down, iirc there shouldn’t be any gaskets along the circumference of the braking surface.
Sturmey has the service manuals online though.