I just wanted to share something I recently learned at the school of hard knocks ( from where I have a doctorate degree ). My original problem was an inability to get the drum brakes to stay adjusted which resulted in a very powerful pull of the front end to the left which could result in our eating an oncoming cages front end most unpleasant I'm sure. Since this was my wifes trike and I'm very fond of her I requested she not ride it till fixed, which was not well accepted. After 3 months of trial and error including a $500.00 attempted by a local shop I deceided to convert from drum brakes to disc. This was only possible due to the assistance of a member of this forum he had developed plans to cheaply convert the brakes. That part was great it just took a couple more months to build the kit and order all the parts. While installing the calipers I noticed the new disc not staying centered as I rotated the wheel hub. Damn that was unexpected since this bike only had 5000 miles on it and had just set most of it's life. I removed the axle took it to work where one of the machinist put it on the lathe and gave me the bad news BENT AXle. The two machinist came up with an explaination that apparently when the kit was made in order to shorten the axle and not have it resplined they took the extra length out of the middle and then welded it back together thus crooked as a politician. So to make a long story longer I had to have a new axle made since I couldn't find the right used axles that could be resplined. What a total pain in the ****. Happy to say this fixed the problem as well as the vibration problem we were attributing to kit built with standard front rake. Glory be it was nothing other than the bent axle go figure. So if you stayed with me this long the moral of the story is don't assume the people building these things know any more than you do. Hope none of you come across this problem but if you do look at the axle.

 

I'm curious as why the machinist didn't re cut the axle at the weld and clamp it to a straight edge and re weld it again?

I have a motortrike kit and found that the wheel cylinders can be a issue with braking on the drum brake set up causing the same issue with the rear brakes pulling to one side

 

The guys talked about it and would do it as a last resort but wanted it done right so no one would ever get hurt by this deal. As far as new wheel cylinders I put 2 new ones and a new spring kit on it.

 

Ok. Glad you got it worked out. I have a rear disk brake setup for a mustang gt I may install on my trike over the winter to replace my drum brakes

 

I have the plans for the conversion and have helped several folks convert from drum to disc on either belt drives or those with diffy's. The same thing applies in either case. I have found out the hard way that it's pretty much impossible to make anything from a production car fit. Lehman used a "bastardized" axle retention system. The Mustangs, Pinto's and T-Birds that had rear disc brakes used a c-clip retention system. The Lehman kit uses a bearing retainer to hold the outer bearing in place and it was "invented" at that. Don't bother trying to make car parts work....they won't. Chicota can attest to the fact that I have a plan that works. His bent axle made his installation a lot more complicated.

Contact me if anybody wants to take this on as a winter project.