Date:         Thu, 25 Sep 2008 12:48:10 -0700
Reply-To:     Dan Dutcher <danagain@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Dan Dutcher <danagain@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Rear brake questions
In-Reply-To:  <000801c91f40$11a713a0$4001a8c0@gateway.2wire.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

On Thu, Sep 25, 2008 at 11:53 AM, Don Hanson <dhanson@gorge.net> wrote:

> Hi all,
>  I'm doing a rear brake job on my 84.  Found one slightly weeping wheel
> cylinder, so I have a replacement for that as well as new shoes for both
> rears.  When I replace the wheel cylinder, do I have to do a complete
> bleed?
> Including the clutch?  Or just bleed that one wheel's line?
>

You do need to bleed all of the wheels (not the clutch). I would start with
a quick bleed at the wheel cylinder that I had just replaced to get the bulk
of the air out. Then I would bleed each wheel in the following order:
passenger's side rear > driver's side rear > passenger's side front >
driver's side front.


>   Second question:  I notice the old shoes are very worn on the "top"  and
> almost full thickness still at the "bottom".  "top" meaning the end of the
> shoes that are at the top of the drum next to the wheel cylinder.  One
> wheel
> is pretty radical...not the one with the leaky cylinder, BTW.      The
> other
> is not quite so bad..with about 3/4 thickness on the shoe at the bottom and
> perhaps a mm or two of lining left at the cylinder end.
>
>  Is that somewhat normal?  Did the PO get the shoes in there wrong?  Seems
> like the wear should be more even around the whole radius of the shoes, but
> these, it looks like the cylinder end is doing most of the work of stopping
> and taking most of the wear.


This kind of wear is normal for what I see as a poor design of the rear
brake system on these vehicles. The bottom of the shoe is essentially the
pivot point so it can't get any closer to the drum and wears unevenly like
you described.

If it helps, my parking brake barely holds the van on a 5-6% grade when
>
 pulled on as hard as I can get it..it seems to be adjusted ok, just no
> holding power.  I read the mechanical leverage on the older (84) E-brake
> handle is not great, but mine it almost not functioning...and I have a
> horse
> gate to open and close each  time up my drive, one on a 5% grade...
>

Work on only one side of the van at a time so that you can look at the other
brake set as a example of how everything fits together. Pay attention to the
way the springs are positioned below the adjuster (they spring coils should
be out of the way so that they don't get hung up on the adjuster).

As a final step before putting the drum back on adjust the shoes out as far
as you can yet still be able to slide the drums on without ANY force - they
should just barely slide on over the shoes. This should help with your
e-brake issue.

Hope this helps.

Take care,
Dan