Date:         Sun, 24 Nov 2002 21:13:05 -0500
Reply-To:     Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Marc Perdue <marcperdue@ADELPHIA.NET>
Subject:      Re: emergency brake doesn't work well?
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii

What timing!  I just had my van in the shop because the brakes seemed to
not be working as well.  Needed a little fluid is all; it had been some
time since I checked it, so not an inordinate amount of leakage.  They
also said that it looked like the drums had been replaced by the PO;
there was almost no wear on them at all.  I've had it for 17K miles.
Anyway, it was pouring rain when they finished it up and parked it
outside on a steep hill at about 10 AM.  When I got there at 5:15 to
pick it up, I took off the emergency brake, noting that the handle had
been pulled higher than I normally pull it, put it in reverse to back
down the hill and couldn't go anywhere!  After playing with the
emergency brake handle and shifting between Drive and Reverse a couple
of times, I was able to get the emergency brake to release and the
vehicle to move.  I drove it up to the shop and told them about the
problem.  They kept it overnight because the technicians had gone for
the day.  When I went back the next day, they told me that they had seen
the problem before and that it was caused by rust buildup on rainy
days.  Sounded a little fishy to me, but it was working fine and all
they did was drive it a bit and apply the brakes some to clean off the
drums.  Weird!  The upshot of all this, though, is that if I pull up my
emergency brake enough to get in the way of swivelling my driver's seat
around :^), the brakes hold fine.  Don't know how many clicks that is,
but I'd say yours are in some need of adjustment.  As to the argument
that that's as good as they get, that's pure BS!  Something's not right.

Good luck,
Marc Perdue

Brian and Carol Megas wrote:

> The emergency brake on our 86 Westy doesn't seem to
> work as well as we would like. When we park on
> a small hill and put the emergency brake on, it doesn't
> quite stop our van from rolling. When the van was last
> in at the shop for servicing, the boys adjusted the
> emergency brake and said that was as good as it gets.
>
> When I pull on the emergency brake handle, it will make
> eight clicks before it gets too hard to pull
> it any more. The boys at the shop said the brakes, brake
> pads, etc. are all in good shape.
>
> I thought that before I jacked up the back of the van
> to adjust things myself that I would ask the question: Do
> other list members find that their emergency brakes
> work really well on hills, or not?
>
> Thanks, Brian
>
> Brian, Carol, Thea, Deverelle and Kelsey Megas
>    Box 1051, Chemainus, BC,Canada, V0R 1K0
>       bmegas@island.net    http://www.island.net/~bmegas/
>           **to make your dreams come true, you have to stay awake**