Date: Sat, 3 Jul 2010 18:38:31 -0700
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: That's it, I've had it. (Driving with brake on)
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"
right on Don.
re
I am reluctant to pull up 'full power'
I would be extremely surprised if you could hurt anything putting the parking brake on with very high force.
sure....if a overly strong person JERKS it on 110 % every time they park the car..that will tear things up gradually ..
but for holding power...the rear brakes are identical in all US model vanagons, 2WD and Syncro up to 1991 ...and VW or any company would be careful to not build a parking brake with which a person could hurt the brake parts with an occasionally 'full force' parking brake application.
and I have seen people just yank that sucker like they were on a 45 degree slope every single time they shut off the car, even parked level a garage. Some people are really brutal on equipment...
and often don't even know that they are. Don't get me started ..and very heavy guy I know that I let use a van of mine for many months ..I get the van back, and there's 2 inches of play in the steering wheel. ..
I watch him back out his own van, and when it was time to turn the steering wheel, he jerked , HARD, on the steering wheel, ....just to start a turn to back up. On my van ...that I let him use, that manifested itself as large slop where the right tie rod exits the end of the steering rack, bushing there - just ruined that rack in about 10 months ..
just from being clumsy and brutal on stuff.
< btw, one of the very worst things you can do for a car is loan it to someone. Somehow they always manage to not know the nuances, the idiosyncrasy's etc....for example, I let a customer use a van of mine for few hours. She wanted to be 'good' and put gas in it. She gives the keys for the locking gas cap to the pump jockey, he jams the ignition key into the cap and bends the ignition key. ...grrr. >
but no, you can put that brake on carefully, as hard as it will go ...not gonna break any brake parts unless they are very old and tired anyway, or out of spec, like too thin rear drums.
I like the feel of those later handles myself..
It's the only way . They work just great.
and it's a good example of how VW underbuilds and then improves up to 'decent' as they go along over the years producing one series of vehicle. Or sure did back then. That was so they could say '15 improvements for the new model year." The later handle is improved 3 separate ways over the early one. I don't think engineers and deigners are always so smart. The early parking brake handle is an example.
but they sure are fun !
scott
turbovans
NVC ..just saw Obama say 'we have been running the credit card on future generations" - DUH ! > lol !
----- Original Message -----
From: Don Hanson
To: Scott Daniel - Turbovans
Cc: vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 4:36 PM
Subject: Re: That's it, I've had it. (Driving with brake on)
Yah, I swapped out my old style brake handle for a newer type and it does work much better. But now, with the added leverage, I am reluctant to pull up 'full power' (what is actually needed to work those rear shoes) because I bet I could easily brake (pun) something before I would 'lock the rear brakes'... It does hold me now when I get out to open our gate, which is on a hill on our road...But I still have driven with it on a couple of times...smell hot brakes, turn the steering wheel and spy that hidden warning light down there...
Now I do like I did in my old Beetles....I reach down a lot out of habit and flick the brake button on the lever with my thumb....
Don Hanson
On Sat, Jul 3, 2010 at 4:25 PM, Scott Daniel - Turbovans <scottdaniel@turbovans.com> wrote:
it's an 84 I think..
even when you yank those early parking brake handles on pretty firmly,
you still don't get much leverage on the brake drum shoes.
it's really very poorly designed.
the later style parking brake handle is at least 3 times better .
you know the parking brake is on with those.
some vans get sticky/draggy parking brake cables..
and while tension at the handle may feel like a lot, it may not be getting
to the brake shoes.
another spot of hundreds that old vanagons could use some lubing,
or new parking brake cables...if new ones can be counted on to be of decent
quality that is.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jeff Schwaia" <vw.doka@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 4:04 PM
Subject: Re: That's it, I've had it. (Driving with brake on)
Or... fix your parking brake so that the van doesn't move well when it's
engaged.
Cheers,
Jeff
----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike "Rocket J Squirrel"" <camping.elliott@GMAIL.COM>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, July 03, 2010 12:31 PM
Subject: That's it, I've had it. (Driving with brake on)
This is the third time I've forgotten to take off the parking brake
before driving. It's not like the brakes are so monstrous that I'll
notice on the first quarter-mile downhill away from the house, and my
sitting position places the steering wheel right between the dash Brake
light and my eyesballs.
I'm gonna rig some alarm to sound when the Brake warning light is on and
the transmission is in gear.
Mellow Yellow has an automatic transmission, and the starter won't turn
if the van is not in Park, so there's some wire that connects to a
switch on the shift linkage or something. I can't find that wire in
Bentleys.
--
Rocky J Squirrel
84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
Bend, OR
KG6RCR
