The front brake worked quite well but it was not aligned very well so one of the shoes wore crooked. I was able to buck the loose rivets to get another 1/32nd of life out of the worn shoe. I decided to clean and paint the backing plate and put the brake back together as is because I want to use the bike soon for Morel hunting. The backing plate is pinched between the fork and the end of the 5/8″ diameter axle. The hole in the backing plate is 1/2″ and the bolt going through it is 3/8″ so there is a 1/8″ gap which the axle had fallen into on one side making the shoe alignment even worse. I found a white 1/16″ thick O-ring that I will use to center the brake backing plate better than it was.

The shoes are difficult to install with a nasty learning curve which reminds me of the first 20 times I struggled attempting to re install Rokon front miter boxes until I figured it out. Cusswords and big honking snap ring pliers finally overcame the heavy springs.

I cleaned up the hardware. The threads are 3/8-26 BSC (British Standard Cycle).