CX500 GL500 650 Global

Rear break squeals like a dying rabbit.Pads look great,drum looks great.Anyone have any sugestions?Will sanding the pads help?Seems to improve once they're warmed but doesn't entirely go away.Thanks

Are these,"Brake shoes"?

yes.I meant shoes ,not pads.

I wish I could help you out. But mine is doing the same thing. I just cleaned the drum out, sanded it a bit and put a brand new set of Honda shoes in, and it's squeaking again after riding it for a while. I have not been able to come up with a cure either.

Cobram had a solution for this on the Chopper Charles forum. It involved attaching adhesive-backed sandpaper to the inside of the drum to re-round the shoes. I haven't tried it.

R

More often than not it's the Actuator inside the drum not releasing properly and general crud in the mechanism.All the parts of the rear drum inner mechanism are removable.Strip them all out and light sand,polish any corrosion off them and make sure they all move freely.I also used a bit of Moly/Copper grease on the Actuator and it's faces but wiped clean around it as I don't want any lubricant to contaminate the shoes.

Also I soft chamferred the leading edges of the shoes at roughly 45 degree angle and of course grit papered the surface of the shoes so there's no glaze.Check also that the linings are not coming away from their bonding to the shoe as this can happen and will cause squeal.

I also sanded off any corrosion/crud inside the drum face itself.

Shep, all of what you suggested, I have done. several times. The Honda shoes are a little better, but not all the way cured. Like everyone else with this problem, it's frustrating.

Randall: That sounds like a pretty drastic solution. It might help. but would be pretty dangerous riding it that way to get the drum sanded out. Besides, the shoes would just follow the form of the drum I think. Maybe not though because it all mechanically actuated. If there was any out of roundness in the drum, you should be able to feel it in the peddle as you apply the brakes. It is an interesting theory though. I'll give you that.

I'm with you on the Sand paper idea.Sounds a bit stupid and dangerous.I can't add anything else as neither of mine squeal :/

I think the intended process for the sandpaper fix was that: 1. Bike off and on center stand, in nuetral, with self adhesive sandpaper applied to the inside circumference of the brake drum. 2. Rotate the rear wheel by hand. 3. Very lightly apply the rear brake, by hand.
You will need to drop the wheel off frequently and observe where the material is being removed from the shoes. Once you see that the "wear" created by the sandpaper covers the large majority of the shoe face you are done, taking off any more material will just shorten the life of the shoes even more.
I don't think the fix will work for all, but it might help some. It helped mine for awhile.

I have not tried this but it has worked on drum brakes for ALKo trailers, cut 2 x shallow grooves across the width of the shoe lining material about 2 to 3 mm deep equal distance, that is one third and two thirds.

The theory is that it breaks up sound resonance? It certainly worked really well on the trailers we supplied which had a drum size similar to the GL?

regards Roy