Drum Brake Wheel Clyinder

[Judge Judy]

I need to replace a drum brake wheel cylinder on my 2007 Motor Trike (on a Honda VTX 1300). Anybody know what kind I need to buy? I'll call Motor Trike next week, but in case they are closed for the holidays, I'd rather not wait to order the part, and thought someone here might know. My installer is waiting... Thanks!

 

[philmcc]

Take the cyl.off and take it to a auto parts thy should be able to come up with a part number. I think it will be a small Ford wheel cyl.

 

[keepinon]

JJ, for some reason the PDF file for Motortrike in the Honda forum won't open for me. But, I had saved it to disk a while back. I found a parts list for the drum brakes 2001-2002. I believe they matched what's on my Valkyrie.

Trying to post a screen shot:

 

[JerryW]

JJ, as stated before take it to a Auto Part store. You didn't say what the problem was but you should be able to get a wheel cyclinder kit for a couple of buck and repair the cyclinder. ThumbUp

JerryW in AZ

 

[Gorilla]

Jerry, Judge Judy's problem is we believe the pitons on one side are hanging up. Applying the rear brakes only causes a hard pull to the right. Pulling the left drum every thing looks good and relatively new in her 5 year old conversion. The trike sat for several years before she got it and I think water has accumulated in the fluid and is rusting the pistons and cylinder walls. I believe she will be better off replacing the cyclinders because of the possible pitting. As soon as we can find out what they are I will be changing them out for her. Thanks everyone.

 

[keepinon]

Changing the brake fluid is always a good idea, especially in the humid climates we live in. On the Valk, I just replaced the rubbers & pistons, the parts house didn't have the rebuilt cylinders, or I would have gone that way.

If you can get the MotorTrike manual to download from the Honda forum, on page 51 & 52 they show grease points on the backing plate. I just used some lithium grease on the back plate where the shoes rest against it. I really think this did as much good as rebuilding the cylinders. Everything moved much easier.

I also disabled the auto-adjusting arm, makes it much easier to manually adjust the brakes. IMO, no science to back it up, I don't think there is enough weight & shoe travel to make the auto-adjusters work, and they just get in the way when manually doing it. I only have to adjust mine about every 5K miles, not much of a problem.

Good luck with the wrenching.

 

[Judge Judy]

Disabling the adjuster arm makes sense - thanks for the idea. Motor Trike is closed until Wednesday, so I will update with part info then. Happy holidays to all!

 

[Judge Judy]

Spoke with MotorTrike today, and the wheel cylinder is a Wagner #F34876 which is for a Ford 7 1/2" rear end. NAPA sells it under # UP34876. $8.49 each. The part is listed for such popular vehicles as a 1979 Mustang, 1972-1976 AMC Gremlin, 1963-1976 Dodge Dart, 1960-1965 Ford Falcon, 60's Mercury Capri's and Comets, and the ever memorable 1971-1976 Plymouth Scamp, Duster, and Valiant. The most recent models that use it are the 2001-2003 Mazda B2300, B3000 and B4000 Pickups.

I learned a lot while researching this, but here is my question: why would MotorTrike, when building a 2007 kit (which mine is) use a part that hasn't been used on a vehicle since 2003? And is MotorTrike still using it on 2013 models? Is that typical? Very interesting.....

 

[keepinon]

why would MotorTrike, when building a 2007 kit (which mine is) use a part that hasn't been used on a vehicle since 2003?

I think it would be typical. The part has a lot of applications, likely some in other countries we don't know about. And, the more popular a part, the less cost in building a kit.

To satisfy my own curiosity, are your wheels 4 or 5 lug? Mine are 5, but I have seen 4, just don't know which is the newer model. My kit was supposedly installed in 2000.

 

[Judge Judy]

5 Lug. Put on a brand new 2007 VTX 1300 R at the Texas factory. I bought it from the original owner in December 2011. It had about 1500 miles on it then. I've added about 5,000 since.