I am having some problems with the rear drum brake on a 1980 ATC185. Whenever you apply the rear brake and them let off the brake, the lever on the drum will not return. So in other words, it just stays on and doesn't release. It will do that on the pedal and the hand lever both. I did go through the rear brake assembly. I cleaned all the gunk and dirt out, checked the shoes and they have a lot of pad material left on them so I didn't replace them. Drum is good, no rust or anything. I removed the cam lever, cleaned everything up, lubed things and put the whole assembly back together with new cables to the pedal and hand lever. After all this, it still sticks and won't return on it's own. Anyone have a clue here on what it might be??

BTW, for the heck of it, I tried putting a spring from the Drum Lever to the frame thinking it would pull it back, nothing changed, still sticks.

I've worked on drum brakes 100's of times on cars and cycles, even a couple of fork trucks too. Never seen one have this kind of problem.

 

Make sure you have disassembled the Brake cam and arm and cleaned it. Grease both ends were the brakes attach and the cam arm both sides and the center. I have a few parts for a 1980 185 what do you need?

 

I would look at the spring
Probably weak
Ray