Still engaged in my bike maintenance 101 learning experience. I now have a problem with a sticky cantilever brake on the same bike with the bad wheel hub. I have Avid Shorty center pull brakes and one side on the rear sticks when I apply the brakes. It feels like the little wire spring that runs around the base of the lever is sticking inside the base. Lets see if I can insert some images to illustrate the piece I am talking about:

Here is the spring wire - it is entering the base on the right:



Here it is where it comes around the base on the other side. I think it is sticking in the base:



Here are two views of the spring from the lever side showing it's range of motion which is the same as on the working lever. The spring is not tight in that section it moves back and forth readily as does the spring on the working side:




I have tried adjusting the screw on the base but that didn't help and possibly makes the problem worse. I also moved the pin into the forward of the three pin holes (Sheldon Brown says that increases spring tension). That significantly increases the tension but it still sticks. Also, with the pins in the forward hole, the brake springs don't stay put on the pad side of the lever. The increased tension causes them to pop over the stay (that silver looking post right by my figure tip on the left of the last photo. Has anyone experienced this sort of problem. Can I disassemble the base and clean it? Re-tension the spring somehow? Buy new brakes?