By sheer brilliance I cannot find the diagram I drew before taking this thing apart (!). I can guess several plausible orders for the bits - but does anyone know the correct order?
is the other brake on the bike the same type and still in one piece?
As a starter the shafts right end in the picture is the end to mount the calipers on and the first component is the return spring I'm pretty certain you can then eliminate these from the front 1,8, 6 From the back 7 followed by a thin washer (4?) then a thick washer with a shallow curved face to mate against the head tube
PeterK
cc'd to urc - hope you don't mind
Do you really, really want to put it back together? Single pivot calipers never were much good, even the best quality ones; and that was never a good quality one. If you want a practical bike which will stop, a modern Shimano, tektro, Mavic or Shimano dual pivot caliper will fit (depending on the 'brake drop' measurement - the distance from the bolt hole to the brake track on the rim). If you are restoring a vintage bike as a museum piece, it goes together roughly as follows (I may be slightly wrong about some of the washers and spacers but if I am it will become obvious):
shaft, spring, spacer(2), short caliper side (top left in picture), washer(3), long caliper side, washer( 5), badge, nut(8), decorative closed nut. Note that both caliper arms are assembled with the spur against which the spring must rest on the side away from the decorative nut, and that the spring acts to open the brake (push the shoes away from one another)The closed nut acts as a lock nut against nut(8) and the reason it does so is that the whole assembly should be tight enough that the arms can't flext but not tight enough that they can't move. Finally the whole assembly is mounted to the hole in the front fork, and washer(4) and nylock nut(7) are tightened very firmly to hold it in place. Note while doing so that the bloody thing will try to rotate so that one shoe oe the other drags on the rim and a solution to this is to hold the brake on very firmly by the brake lever while tightening.
Having said all that, this type of brake will never be better than shockingly bad.
Do you really, really want to put it back together? Single pivot calipers never were much good, even the best quality ones; and that was never a good quality one. If you want a practical bike which will stop, a modern Shimano, tektro, Mavic or Shimano dual pivot caliper will fit (depending on the 'brake drop' measurement - the distance from the bolt hole to the brake track on the rim). If you are restoring a vintage bike as a museum piece, it goes together roughly as follows (I may be slightly wrong about some of the washers and spacers but if I am it will become obvious):
shaft, spring, spacer(2), short caliper side (top left in picture), washer(3), long caliper side, washer( 5), badge, nut(8), decorative closed nut. Note that both caliper arms are assembled with the spur against which the spring must rest on the side away from the decorative nut, and that the spring acts to open the brake (push the shoes away from one another)The closed nut acts as a lock nut against nut(8) and the reason it does so is that the whole assembly should be tight enough that the arms can't flext but not tight enough that they can't move. Finally the whole assembly is mounted to the hole in the front fork, and washer(4) and nylock nut(7) are tightened very firmly to hold it in place. Note while doing so that the bloody thing will try to rotate so that one shoe oe the other drags on the rim and a solution to this is to hold the brake on very firmly by the brake lever while tightening.
Having said all that, this type of brake will never be better than shockingly bad.
No, it will be worse than that, those look like fibre/leather blocks implying steel rims. I seem to remember that those make the bike go faster when applied, especially in the wet :-)
If you really must reassemble them I think I've got one in a box of bike bits I am going to freescycle, if so I can take a photo of the detail. Let me know if you want it.
That's a really crappy side-pull brake - fet a pair of (cheapish) Alhonga dual-pivot side-pull brakes of the correct reach (depth) for the blocks to be on the rim. They're adjustable via a small screw to centre them and they work!
Um. I'm working fomr memory here, I threw away the last bike with brakes like this some years go. The major component is: cheese. However...
I think the nylon spacer goes between the pressed steel arms, the standard nut and domed nut go on the outside, the shaft goes through the fork crown or brake bridge, the nyloc nut and smaller washer retain it on the far side of that, the large washer goes on the shaft after the spring which locates in the groove on the shoulder. So: nyloc, small steel washer, brake bridge or fork crown, shoulder with groove facing outwards, spring in groove, large washer, first steel plate (the larger and more complex one), nylon washer, second steel plate, washer, nut, domed nut. And if it doesn't work you have alreadye xpended more effort than the bike was worth :o)
I know there are better brakes. But, surprise surprise, yes I would like to put them back - strangley, that is why I posted. Even when assembled incorrectly (maybe) they are *not* "shockingly bad". (Or I wouldn't use them). In fact they are remarkably good. Bit of a WOB post just to say that really - yes ok - scrap the bike and buy another one. Great solution and of course well in the spirit of DIY (not) Thanks again to the +ve respondents.
I get a 404, can you re-upload it?
Steel rims actually have better frictional qualities than aluminium, when dry; and leather gives "...outstanding wet-braking properties when used against a chrome-plated surface" (Whitt & Wilson).
LOL I remember that feeling well, applying the brake to no effect and having the distinct feeling that the damn thing was speeding up under you. ISTR that the more urgent the stop, the greater the bike acceleration!
Nobby
An impeccable source, but not consistent with my experience, at least.
The practical difference may be in a small amount of contamination from exhausts, oil on puddles, drips, etc..
- Nigel
Totally irrelevant on a bike with normal geometry.
Perhaps they mean compared to _other_ brake pads on wet steel rims.
Agreed - but the converse, were it true, might not be.
The range of wet-to-dry quoted ratios of friction was 0.5 to 1.0; and as the dry performance of steel rims is better, leather-on-steel could be as good as (if not better) than, say, rubber on aluminium. The Fibrax pads were reported as giving a stopping distance when wet of no more than 30% greater than that when dry; which agrees more-or-less with the valuse above.
pritty sure got boxes full them at my folks place from all the kids bikes in the 70's
roger
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