Hi Dennis,

>If the parking brake lever is pushing on the adjuster bar from not following >my adjustment instructions, the adjuster will not work properly and adjust >for wear as it should. I still think you have bad cables.

I did try to do what you said first - that is, I adjusted the cable with the drums off - but I had not yet set the position of the shoes yet... so when I put the drum back on, the parking brake had no effect. I pumped the brakes a couple of times, but even after that, I was able to remove the drum easily without backing off on the adjuster, so the shoes had not expanded far enough. Maybe if I had kept pumping the would have, but I had to turn the adjuster wheel at least two full revolutions to set the shoes in the right position - so they were way off. After that, I just adjusted the cables until they did not impede the free rotation of the wheel when the brake was off, and stopped it when the brake was on. I did that with the drum on.

My cables both slide freely, but, again, the angled ferrule that is the rear cable stop is just held against the backing plate by the tension of the cable. On the other two vanagons I looked at for comparison, the angled ferrule seems like it is snapped right into the oval hole in the backing plate... and for the life of me I cannot see how I could get that to happen.

I'm not dis'ing drum brakes :) It's just that disc brakes always seemed a lot less mysterious - more like bicycle brakes - and any drum brakes I'd ever tried to mess with were a rusty mess!

- Doug

On 5/7/2008, "Dennis Haynes" <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:

>For the brake hardware kit, get it form the dealer. The complete kit is $24 >list and the pins fit properly. The springs are plated, not painted. > >Factory shoes have a thicker lining and fit the drums better with less >adjustment. Yes, ouch they are now expensive ($135 list) but they are also >mettalic linings and last longer, stop better. > >ATE Wheel cylinders still have the push springs between the pistons. Stops >the pistons from creeping in and reqiuring that "double pump" for a firm >pedal. > >If the parking brake lever is pushing on the adjuster bar from not following >my adjustment instructions, the adjuster will not work properly and adjust >for wear as it should. I still think you have bad cables. > >If you shimmed out the lower shoe mounts as I suggested, new shoes and drums >will have the brakes adjusted with the adjuster bar retracted. > >Spring tools do not work well on Vanagon brake springs. You can use the >shoes to lever them in place. Rear shoe first, hook spring on shoe and >center piece, place top of shoe against cylinder and move bottom of shoe out >until it can rest on the mount. Do the same for front shoe, hook spring on >bottom shoes and if needed use pliers to help push front shoe into position. >Then install the adjuster bar before the hold downs. Take up all the slack >on the adjuster befroe installin that lever spring. Then install the >handbrake cable on the hook. > >Drum brakes should not be scary. That was the norm for many years and are >still used on most trucks and busses. > >Dennis