Front Brake set up for an EW

[bazza]

Hi All,At the moment my front brake is just set with Bowden cable ,brake adjuster and a yoke connected to the brake crank.In photos the brake is set up using a brake rod is this really neccessary and if so how is it all connected up and what parts do I need to do that?.

Regards Bazza

[davebarkshire]

There are some brake shots on my EW page http://www.barkshire.co.uk/bikes/DouglasEW1926.htm which may help. If you need me to take any other photos let me kow what you are looking for (it is assembled now).

[Doug]

Bazza,

At the top end of the rod is a shroud, inside besides the connection to the Bowden cable, is a coil sprint that helps return the brake arm to the 'brake off' position. You should not rely just on the return springs attached to the brake band.

-Doug

[bazza]

Thanks Doug and Dave I have an old brake rod with a yoke at one end and just a thread at the other anyone got any suggestions on how I can connect the Bowden wire to the rod and a spring as well.Suppose one could put another yoke on the thread end connect up by drilling the clevis pin and connecting to that with a nipple and prior to soldering a nipple put a spring between the yoke and the brake adjuster,what does the forum reckon???.

Bazza

[Doug]

Bazza,

Here is a picture of the connection Douglas used. This particular one is off of a 1936, but they used the same setup for about a decade. The stepped nipple drops into the side slot, then the head pulls up into a socket. Not shown are the coil spring and shroud. I should have these about somewhere as I un-soldered the cable (the genuine Terrys item), but they were not in the bag of goodies.



The next picture is the connector in-situ on a 1934. As you can see the shroud just rest under the cable adjuster abutment. The coil spring pushes that up, and down on the shoulder of the brake rod seen above. The hole is I believe to allow a drop of oil to keep the spring from rusting. No provision seems to have ever been made to allow assembly without soldering the cable fitting on after the fact. So you had to buy the front brake cable with the adjuster screw attached. Though the nipple would pass through the hole in the end of the shroud.



-Doug

[bazza]

Thanks Doug my idea was a bit of a dogs breakfast the original looks better.

Regards Bazza

[Chris]

Hi all, just to throw in my two pennyworth, the assembly is commonly known as a "spring box". It was  used on many models over the years in various configurations. A smaller diameter version is used on the very early machines such as the 1910 and later 2.3/4hp models located at the top of the forks where stirrup brakes were used. The CW model where the front brake is a wedge levered into a dummy brake rim appears to be the first example of the side valve models to use the larger diameter design located at the side of the fork. This continued on to the EW and is present on most models including the Bantam, Endeavour and Aero models to 1938.
Chris.