Thank you for the info - If it isn’t clear already, I’m new to the world of Gems and understanding what they consist of.
You are correct, both of my carts have drum brakes, front and back. My black cart has a spongier brake that you have to push the pedal far down on to slow down the cart. On the other, the brake pedal does not move nearly as far but still requires heavy pressure to slow down the cart.
I topped off both with new brake fluid and am looking for a miracle to make the brakes easier for its riders. Thoughts?
AND thank you for your time!
On the cart with more brake pedal travel-
It is not necessarily a brake shoe issue when your pedal becomes soft, but your entire brake system should be fully inspected.
It sounds like your fluid level got down too low and may have allowed a bit of air into the system. The common solution is to “bleed the brakes”. This involves opening the bleed screw at each wheel(one at a time) and flushing the system until fluid is free of bubbles. There are several different methods of doing this process.
A second concern is why was the fluid that low? Where did the fluid go? It is a common need to replace the wheel cylinders if they are leaking. Remember that your car is 20 years old and seals are wearing out, or just not as flexible as they once were. Take a flashlight and look at the inside of each wheel for wetness or signs of fluid at the bottom of each brake drum or even radial lines on the rim/tire. This would be brake fluid being flung out from your wheel when driving. If you don’t see any signs to this extreme you need to pull off the wheel and inspect each cylinder directly. If a cylinder has been leaking for a while the brake lining is probably saturated and needs replacing also.
Be aware that even when working 100%, with good dry brakes and firm pedal, the brakes are not very impressive on the early cars.
Understood, I will likely bleed the brake lines for the first cart.
For the second cart, I have not seen any leakage. Both Brake Fluid Containers for the carts were almost completely full so I don’t believe leaking was an issue, but figured I might as well top it off.
Would replacing the old drums with newer drums help with the braking power or does that seem impractical?
No- replacing drums will not help.
It is high on the list of complaints of the early cars. Many just live with it. I think it is called “planning ahead” along with a little “praying” and maybe some “cussing” involved in emergency situations (but that is not usually advised in the same breath).
You can do a search of the archives using the magnifying glass in the upper right of your screen. By using a couple of choice key words, it will take you to decades of posts by people way smarter than me. Study the braking issues of the early cars, and a few possible solutions to see if they are within your skill set to accomplish.
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Brake fluid should be completely changed out and the lines flushed with fresh fluid every 4-5 years on average. I would not be surprised if the fluid is original on those two GEMs.
Glazing of the contact surface on the drums could reduce stopping power, but short of a parking brake hanging up and being driven that way for a long time, I don’t think a stock GEM could get fast enough to cause that condition. For a GEM you could just use some sandpaper on the contact surface of the drum and also make one or two passes across the surface of the pads (only a few passes are necessary on the pads, don’t overdo it).
Braking on anything 2004 and earlier is complete shyt, btw, so part of it is just bad design.
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That’s great to know, maybe it will be worth in time to upgrade to disc brakes (I saw a front set for sale on NEV Accessories for $710… ouch).
Cleaning the brake lines seems like a great place to start.
Noted, I can confirm a variety of those three have been used at times.
It’s new news to me that the brakes are unanimously an issue across all early Gems - great to know.
I have a feeling I may have to replace every part of the cart to satisfy my OCD, might as well buy a new cart! (I’m kidding)
Rodney @Old_Houseboater posted a thread on where to drill a new pivot hole in your brake pedal arm which will give the piston in the master cylinder a longer compression stroke so higher pressure = more braking power.
If your drums are in decent shape / work and the pistons don’t leak, it might be worth it to try before dropping eight bills at NEVA.
There starts the slippy slope of the early gems…then it’s blue motor, tires, lithium…
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True, true. Next thing you know, you’ve pumped $5k into polishing a turd. When you could have had better suspension, better steering, better electronics, a better battery charger too, all along with everything but the lithium conversion for spending like $3-5k more to get an 07+ when instead you got lulled in by the low price and bought the 00-04 shitbucket. Thinking that you could fix it up…
Silly wabbit
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The disc brake upgrade is one of the best investments I have made on both early model GEMs we’ve owned. If you want some confidence that the cart will stop do it first. That being said, the carts are so lightweight that the wheels lock up quickly, something to be aware of driving.
I don’t disagree about the quality of the disc brake upgrade. I’ve posted praises of it alongside your posts.
I always did however, not find myself fond of the cost. At the time, Rodney had not made the specifics of his pedal arm modification public. I would have certainly at least tried that first, can always go back to the other pivot hole if it didn’t work out.
I also bought the discs on short order because I had to go from 30-ish to zero w/ a partial pallet of full 1/2 bbl kegs in back and two fatazzes up front. It was an E-stop while being two-three hundred lbs over max weight and from a speed it’s not supposed to be traveling at. It stopped, in the next county over, but it stopped. Never again loaded the '02, nor the '10 that replaced it, that heavily again, not avoiding it, it just hasn’t ever come up since.
Fortunately it already has a blue motor, but yes I can already imagine the projects to come…