25-04-2019, 08:37 PM
I've been working on the brakes on an RN that one of my sons has bought. This had an original Bowdenex front brake conversion, which we decided to leave.
Having sorted the front hubs, brakes and cables, I turned my attention to the rear brakes, starting on the O/S. The shoes were completely dry and had very little wear.
However, the levers are are 3/16" longer, centre to centre, than the cranked front ones (I think this means that the front brakes have been coming on sooner). The rear lever is the type with an eye and a tiny split pin hole drilled through it to anchor a headless clevis pin. The lever has 1A7197 stamped on it, which appears to be from a 1936 Ruby (interestingly, this is the number for the N/S lever, not the O/S).
I did consider fitting new long ball-end levers, as a set of new ball-end cables came with the car, but these are also 3/16" too long, and I would really prefer to have front and rear levers of the same length. I tried fitting a spare Bowdenex cranked front lever of the same length, but it either reaches too far forward or too far backwards.
I would be interested to know what rear levers other people have fitted to accompany a Bowdenex front conversion. Were matching levers supplied with the kit? Does the extra 3/16" in length matter? Will I have to fabricate them?
Thanks in advance
John
PS. I've lost my link to Dave Armstrong's Speedex site and can't find it again. I seem to remember that brake levers were dealt with there.
Having sorted the front hubs, brakes and cables, I turned my attention to the rear brakes, starting on the O/S. The shoes were completely dry and had very little wear.
However, the levers are are 3/16" longer, centre to centre, than the cranked front ones (I think this means that the front brakes have been coming on sooner). The rear lever is the type with an eye and a tiny split pin hole drilled through it to anchor a headless clevis pin. The lever has 1A7197 stamped on it, which appears to be from a 1936 Ruby (interestingly, this is the number for the N/S lever, not the O/S).
I did consider fitting new long ball-end levers, as a set of new ball-end cables came with the car, but these are also 3/16" too long, and I would really prefer to have front and rear levers of the same length. I tried fitting a spare Bowdenex cranked front lever of the same length, but it either reaches too far forward or too far backwards.
I would be interested to know what rear levers other people have fitted to accompany a Bowdenex front conversion. Were matching levers supplied with the kit? Does the extra 3/16" in length matter? Will I have to fabricate them?
Thanks in advance
John
PS. I've lost my link to Dave Armstrong's Speedex site and can't find it again. I seem to remember that brake levers were dealt with there.