Date:         Tue, 17 Sep 2002 20:04:12 -0700
Reply-To:     Alistair Bell <albell@UVIC.CA>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Alistair Bell <albell@UVIC.CA>
Subject:      Re: brakes breaks
Comments: To: "G. Matthew Bulley" <gmbulley@bulley-hewlett.com>
In-Reply-To:  <009001c25eb3$12694140$6401a8c0@gumby>
Content-type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"

Yes and no,

what helped for me (and this may not be applicable) is adjustment of the
rear brakes. If you find that the pedal feels "better" when the hand brake
is applied (try it going down a hill) then it is a problem with the drums.

Manual adjustment of the shoes (following the Bentley instructions) might
well help, or it may be that the drums are at the limit of wear and
adjustment will not help (shoes contacting a lesser amount of drum).

Also I tried Dennis Haynes suggestion of adding a washer to the fixed end of
the shoes (its apparent where the washer goes) to increase the amount of
shoe contact, it helped for me.

Alistair

--
'82 Westy -> diesel converted to gas in '94
albell@uvic.ca
http://homepage.mac.com/alistairbell/home/



on 9/17/02 6:31 PM, G. Matthew Bulley wrote:

> My 1982 Westfalia's brakes have always traveled about 1/3 to 1/2 down
> before feeling meaty, but they work perfectly well (30k of driving over
> mountains, etc.). They've been bled a number of times, and had shoes
> replaced, etc.  Do other people's brakes actuate higher up on the pedal
> swing?