Date: Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:29:54 -0500
Reply-To: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM>
Subject: Re: Follow up - parking brake questions. Was: Frozen emergency
brake
In-Reply-To: <6acc6ca41001092012w17ab5576ta77998f2acf91647@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII"
How old are the cables? The outer sheaths tend wear and collapse along with
the plastic coating allowing water to enter. The resulting rust will cause
the cables to bind.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Luke Bakken
Sent: Saturday, January 09, 2010 11:12 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Follow up - parking brake questions. Was: Frozen emergency brake
On Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 12:57 PM, Luke Bakken <luke.bakken@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hey everyone,
>
> We've had some interesting weather here in Spokane WA - warm and wet
> the first part of the week then suddenly really cold beginning on
> Tuesday night. I got in my van yesterday to drive it around and
> discovered that the brakes weren't disengaging totally from using the
> e-brake. Thankfully I just drove around the block and back home, but
> the right-rear disc was definitely starting to get hot because I could
> hear it cooling down.
>
> I'm assuming that the weird weather change must have frozen something
> up but I'm wondering what the best way to diagnose this issue would
> be. The van has been upgraded to rear disc brakes using a "big brake"
> kit either from SmallCar or Van Cafe (the P.O. installed them). I'm
> assuming I can tap around the e-brake springs on the calipers with a
> hammer to see if I can loosen things up with the e-brake disengaged,
> but other suggestions are very welcome.
Thanks to everyone who replied. I was directed to this thread on the
Samba which shed some more light on the situation:
http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=390169
So, with nothing better to do than get under my van in freezing rain,
I checked stuff out and found that basically the passenger side cable
was seized in its cover. I removed the cable entirely and could not
get it to budge. The brake caliper disengaged just fine. I removed the
driver's side cable as well and found that I could move the cable in
the cover, but not easily. I also think that due to the lengths of the
cables, only the passenger side was ever engaging when using the
parking brake.
First question: while I figure out the best way to fix this, would it
be safe (and legal!) to drive and park the van without having a
working parking brake?
Second question: this thread on the Samba
(http://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?p=3943875) details an
interesting solution to one of the problems with how the parking brake
cables are routed. I wonder if that idea could be expanded to provide
more of a straight shot from the main brake cable and hanger (is that
what the connection point is called?) to the rear brakes. Ideally you
could figure out a route that wouldn't involve any bends except the
one around the rear trailing arm.
I'll probably end up following the SmallCar directions to use a 2wd
brake cable on the passenger side and a stock syncro one on the
driver's side.
Thanks again for any input,
Luke