Rebuild Kits at Edson
John, I have not had a problem on my current catalina, but my previous boat (a US27) had a wheel with no brake installed (not sure why the factory did that). I did check with Edson and they do sell the brake separately as well as a brake repair kit. My quess would be that the brake wore out and you need to rebuild. There is a caution somewhere in the owners manual regarding brake wear if you use too much tension. Kind of a silly caution, because if you set the tension where you want, then you are accepting of some wear. I believe you can also get the kit at West Marine.