Kanguro Brake Problems

[Derek Wright]

Have had a major problem with both back and front brakes on my drum braked Kanguro.
Bought the X in 2007 and fitted new Newfen shoes complete with linings to the back first and then a little later did the front. Did'nt think I had a problem other than noticing that adjustment had to be made more often than would seem normal. I put this down to the linings wearing fairly quickly. I was horrified when I removed the wheels and found that the drums had been completely wrecked.
I have done a reasonable mileage, 17K miles on the rear and 14k miles on the front, all on road only.
The drums are so badly scored they are unusable, the rear especially, the drum dia has increased by about 1.5 mm to the peaks of the scores, across the full width, the front has lost about 1mm and also deeply scored.
The linings are also very badly grooved and have surface tears but the thickness has not reduced that much.
It seems that I have been taking up adjustment to compensate for drum wear, never experienced this before in 40 years plus on British and German bikes.

Fortunately I had a spare Camel rear wheel with a good drum which is the same as the Kanguro.

I'm stuck with the front though, so need a wheel urgently as I like to keep the X on the road all year.

I've spoken to NLM and they have never heard of any problems of this nature,
has anyone ever heard of such issues or had similar problems?
Obviously I'm not to keen to use the same type of linings. The lining manufacturer Newfren have a website, I have taken some photo's of the damage and intend to take this up with them to see if they can give any explanation.

[OogieBoogie]

Hi Derek,

I have a Kanguro X too that I've owned for several years. Both the original drums were badly scored, I have no Idea what make of shoes were fitted. I suspect that the steel (or Iron?) lining in the brake drums may be of poor quality. I replaced the front wheel and shoes several years ago. the rear is still in this sorry state.

I did consider getting the rear drum skimmed to remove the scoring but I think this would remove so much metal that even with new shoes the pedal travel would be excessive.

Good luck finding a front wheel, hopefully someone in the club has one in good codition. I think I got mine from George Lane although as it was at least 5 years ago I may be mistaken.

Stu.

[moriniuk]

You may be in luck. I have a front drum brake wheel. However this is on a fire damaged bike and the front tyre was affected in the fire. It has also been stood outside for a while.

What I'm saying is that I don't really know what condition everything is in. I can remove it over the next few days and give you more detailed information.

[3potjohn]

There's been some kanguro stuff on the German Ebay site lately. I 've certainly had no problems when I got a petrol tank for my Sport posted from Germany.This chap is selling front and a rear wheel by the looks.
http://cgi.ebay.de/Moto-Morini-350-Kang ... 519700d3ab

[moriniuk]

I forgot that I've also got a Camel with a front drum brake. I do know that this is stuck solid though and haven't investigated why. I haven't checked to see if they are the same, but I would think that they are.

[Derek Wright]

Thanks for the replies.
Seems like the problem is not that unusual re reply from Stu. However, when I replaced the shoes / linings, the drums were fine. The X had 32K km on it when I got it, it was MOT'd but after using it for a couple of weeks the back brake felt a bit odd and on stripping, found the linings had detached from the shoes. They were replaced with the Newfren ( made in Italy) shoes, and because of the detached lining problem, replaced the front ones also at 38K km. The front drum was also good as were the linings. Now got almost 61K km on the clock and don't want to be replacing drums every 30K km.
I still have the original front linings and these are a visibly different material type, as you would expect I suppose.
I am reluctant to use Newfren shoes again so will be exploring with UK brake lining specialists to see if they can re- line my shoes with a similar material as the original. I believe also, that some suppliers can supply oversize (on thickness) linings, so will explore the machining of the drums and see what dia is achieved to clean up and see if that is an option.

Mr. Moriniuk, look forward to hearing more about the Kanguro wheel you have. I also have a Camel front, no brakeplate, very good drum, but this is only 140 mm dia., whereas the the Kanguro is 160 mm dia.

Thing shipping a wheel from Germany might be expensive but useful to know.

Derek

[EVguru]

I had problems with the Chrome scoring on a brand new disc with Newfren pads. The issue seemed to be related to riding in the wet when dirt would embed into the very soft pad material.

Perhaps have a talk to http://www.saftek.co.uk/vintage/saftekservices.html

[Derek Wright]

Hi Paul,
Thats what I'm thinking, perhaps the Newfren material is softer and compared with the original linings, the metal parts in the material appear larger. It looks like the lining material has worn and the metal parts picked up on the drum. I have spoken to Saftek and they reckon they do not have any such problems with the linings they supply. Will probably have my shoes re-lined by them and send samples of the Newfren and original lining material with my shoes.
NLM have also advised of an outfit in Leicester who do a re-lining service and as they are local to me, will visit them with my drums and shoes and see what they say.
Derek