Sidepull U Brake Advice Childs Bike

[Michael]

Hi everyone,

I am have been messing on with this for four hours now and I really dont know where I am going wrong. My partner bought our son a bike for Christmas and I am having so much trouble with the rear brake.

The rear brake looks to be the same or at least very similar as this one here:



The part I am having trouble with is figuring out which way the spring is supposed to go, on the front brake the spring slot is horizontal and the rear one seems to want to be diagonal on the right, see this picture of what I mean, this is the bike:

[attachment=2921]

Am I able to rotate the spring slot on its own so it is in the same position as the one in the first picture (the dark blue bike)? Perhaps that is where I am going wrong.

Any advice would be really appreciated, I have never been this frustrated in a very long time.

Many thanks.