BRAKES
Title: Improving
the front brake
The route I took to make it usable was to re-work the existing brake by doing a few simple things. First, take off the wheel and inspect the drum and shoes. If the drum is dusty/rusty clean it out thoroughly with steel wool and blow it out. Then use mechanics cloth or emery cloth to de-glaze the drum until it has a nice dull finish. Clean the shoes if they are greasy with brake kleen, let them dry and again de-glaze them with the emery and blow them clean with air. This gives the shoes and drum a better mating surface. If you see the brake shoes are shiny in spots where they are hitting and dull in others, they may need to be leveled and I do that by lightly sanding the high spots until the shoes perfectly match the arc of the drum. If the drum is grooved or ridged you can have it turned at a local brake or Harley Davidson aftermarket shop if they have the right holding tools.
When you have the shoes and drum re-surfaced you can re-assemble them, but now there is an adjustment procedure necessary to insure the shoes are centered and hit evenly. With the wheel back on, and before you tighten the the outer nut and axle nut, loosen the anchor nut on the leg that secures the drum to the leg. Now the backing plate should be a bit loose since all the nuts are loose. Have someone squeeze the brake handle a few times and then hold it down tight. Now tighten the big outer nut, the axle, and the anchor nut while they are holding the brake on. This centers the shoes and backing plate in relation to the drum and gives you a much firmer handle since the shoes should be hitting evenly all the way around.
This also gives you a larger surface area in contact with the drum. Adjust the cable by grasping the outer housing above the adjuster, pulling it up until the slack is out, and then spinning the adjuster almost all the way down. Now you should feel the brake engage in the first 1/4 of the pull so that even if there is cable flex you will be able to get stopped without the lever hitting the bars. If you can't get enough slack out you may have to remove the wheel again and pull some slack out of the cable at the attachment point at the end of the internal brake arm.
That's it! The only other thing I've done in the past is to have the shoes re-lined with hi-friction coefficient brake linings at a brake shop. They use it for race car brakes and special applications, but it isn't available in a lot of places. I'd try the procedure above first and see if that makes your brakes easier to live with.
