Drum Brakes

I have a 1976 KZ900 that I purchased in the fall. Everytime you use the rear brakes, they squeal. I looked at the drum cover and it has usable range written on it and there is a pointer that is pointed almost all the way to the right. Is this indicating that the rear brakes need to be replaced ? I am wondering this due to the indicator and the squealing that the rear brakes do when you push on the rear brake lever.

Your brake shoos might be warn out and most likely require replacing. If they are than dont use the rear brake because you will destroy the rim. The drum is not replaceable.

That is what I was thinking is that the brake shoes were worn out. They may be the original shoes, so I guess I'll go ahead and order some new shoes. Thanks for the quick reply.

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The drum brakes last 50k miles or so, vs like 20k on the disc pads. Drum works fine. Last set I got was Vesra and they were crap. They were bigger diameter than the wheel drum, So I had dragging brakes for a thousand miles or so. Same thing happened with Vasra rear disc pads on a KZ900. I hate buying aftemarked junk, and Vesra fits. Of course the pointer is adjustable on the shaft so only means something if no one has been fooling with it. You would think a company that makes brakes or shocks or gaskets or ??? would at least measure before getting Chinese manufacture started, but if they do, the Chinese don't read english. All crap out there.

Ron, when did you buy your Vesrah shoes? Mine were installed Nov 2004 - they were identical as far as I could tell & I didn't have any brake adjustment issues. I remember comparing them side by side, just to make sure the guy sold me the correct part. I don't ride as many miles as you do, so maybe I don't know any better.

martin_csr wrote: Ron, when did you buy your Vesrah shoes? Mine were installed Nov 2004 - they were identical as far as I could tell & I didn't have any brake adjustment issues. I remember comparing them side by side, just to make sure the guy sold me the correct part. I don't ride as many miles as you do, so maybe I don't know any better. hee hee.

Years fly by, but I know it was 1998 on the disc pads being too thick on the KZ900. The shoes on the KZ650 was around 2004 which were too big. I put the brake hub or whatever the term for it is into the wheel hub and I had zero movement of the brake lever as the pads were too thick, but barely. I sanded the pads for an hour or so to remove some material and got to where at least the pads were not dragging terribly. After assembly I had like 1/2" of brake lever free play after adjusting and I could turn the wheel and feel brakes were dragging, but I don't care, they will wear in and they did. They are OK now. Still I wonder why quality control is lacking on so many aftermarket parts? Not rocket science to glue some fake asbestos onto a metal shoe and at least have it the correct thickness to work correctly.