Now there are new pads inside the drum brake on the front wheel and I cobbled together a combination of new cable and old adjusters from the original (frozen) cable to make something that works... mostly. The end is held on with a knarp, so it's slightly sketchy, but I'm going to go with it.
The spring on the brake pads was the worst part. Getting the old spring out and the new one with the new pads was a huge pain. When I was looked the brake install up before, some people said they just used pliers, others said they put the spring on before the put the pads on the hub and others said they used a screwdriver to push the spring up over the post after it was already in the holes.
Reference pic:
I did it a little bit differently, I put the spring through the holes in each pad and got the pads on the post on the hub. I still needed to get the spring around the post. After using up my library of cuss words, I figured out I could get the spring closer to getting around the post if I opened the pads up by pushing on the brake arm. I put my big ole prying screwdriver, that I found in the street years ago, into the gap behind the brake arm thing and pushed the pads even further apart. I also angled the pads up off the hub a bit and used the handle of a screwdriver to push the spring over and onto the post.
That description makes it sound easier than it actually was and I left out all the cuss words so little kids can learn how to fix the mopeds they might or might not be able to legally ride.
The rest of the brake job was pretty straightforward. I cleaned all the junk out of the hub and even tried to sand it a bit. It didn't really clean up that well, but it seems to work okay when I test it with my hands. I hope these words aren't foreshadowing my death by under powered scooter.
I think I'll be fine though. I even cleaned the fresh pads with rubbing alcohol to make sure none of my filthy hand grease would compromise breaking power.
The most sketchy part of this repair is the brake cable. Apparently Honda uses sort of odd brake cables because the "universal" brake cable I ordered online did not have the girth or adjusters to work. I also ordered a "NOS honda express front brake cable" from that popular online auction site. It had the right cable ends and the right hardware, but this one was too short. Call me Goldilocks. Maybe I got one for an Urban Express NU50, an Express II NA50 or even an Express SR NX50
So I fabricobbled something together. I chopped up the old brake cable to get the adjuster I needed at the end of the cable, which was a challenge due to the highly rustified nature of the cable. Then I clipped the end off the not-so-universal brake cable so I could apply aforementioned hardware. Then I stuffed the whole melange of parts onto the bike and topped off the end with a knarp. It took a few adjustments to get the tension right, and the brake doesn't snap back all that nicely, but it does seem like it could stop the bike, as long as the knarp holds strong.
I'm still quite sketched out by the knarp, because the first couple of times I adjusted the brake, the cable slipped through the knarp. On the final adjust, I gave it some good crankage with the screwdriver and ratchet, but I'm still not totally confident. Hopefully it's one of those things that I'll worry about less and less as time goes on. Also, I hope it doesn't actually go wrong and try to kill me. I like to think that I'm pretty lucky though, so I'll probably be fine. Hey, I'm worrying less already!
The other thing I sort of fixed is the choke. It's now hooked up to it's rightful place on the handlebars using a grab bag of screws and washers. It doesn't seem to want to move around super nice, but I think it moves enough. The issue is probably having the wrong spring in where it goes into the carb. I had to disconnect it from the carb in order to get enough cable slack to let me hook stuff up on the bars. This involved taking a plunger slide thing off the end of the cable that held on a spring.
Now, I try to be careful while doing this stuff. I had my trusty, red lunch tray, from the school that I used to go to, nearby to hold parts and tools so they wouldn't get lost under the stove or couch (I'm working in my not tiny, but not huge, apartment's living room/kitchen area) and I was pretty sure all the stuff was going safely on my lunch tray. Slightly surprisingly, when it came time to put it all back together, I couldn't find the spring. I searched all over and found something that looked about right in my tin of spare screws and bits. It was kind of strange because I wouldn't want that sort of thing to go in that sort of tin. I shrugged like Mariah Carey and put the spring on the end of the choke cable and buttoned everything back up. While checking my work, I found that the lever wasn't really moving very smoothly. I chalked this up to the machine being a bit older and generally haggard.
Fast forward (does anyone even know what that means anymore or is that phrase too analog? I think I'm getting old) to this morning while I'm making some tea and I feel something underfoot. Nope, not a dried up piece of something cooked yesterday, but a wayward spring! Mystery solved! I'm astounded it wasn't eaten by the cat or lost forever underneath an appliance or piece of furniture.
So now, I have a bit of minor choke fiddling to do, and hopefully it'll operate a bit smoother, but probably not. After that, I plan to get some new pads in the rear wheel. Hopefully, the battle with the spring will be shorter and there will be no casualties. I do have a decent cable on the rear brake, so I've got that going for me.
Speaking of casualties, I have to remember to pick up a couple cotter pins for the wheel nuts. All the good mechanics say that you shouldn't reuse cotter pins and while I half ass a lot of things, having the wheels fall off is something I'd really love to avoid.
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