Update: It's fixed. More info in the comments.

I searched and couldn’t find any general bicycle forums here on Lemmy. This one seemed to be the closest match out of the three I found. So I hope it’s okay to ask for help here.

I have the exact same problem as in this video:

https://youtu.be/aP-N6D7NKtc

But the solution he presents does not work for me. All of the videos on YT about sidepull brakes have the same general solution and none of them work.

I center. I tighten. Etc. And when I pull the handle, the cable yanks the whole caliper sideways and I’m right back where I started.

I used to work on my cars when I owned them. I can fix my computer. My sink. My toilet. Everything on my bike except the brakes. They make no sense to me.

The anchor and the pivot of sidepull brakes are the same. So the fact that the caliper is being yanked to one side makes sense. The functional brakes I see don’t make sense. How do these things work?