Date:         Sat, 10 Jul 2010 12:06:30 -0700
Reply-To:     Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Don Hanson <dhanson928@GMAIL.COM>
Subject:      Re: Cockeyed Parking Brake Equalizer
In-Reply-To:  <4C38B5A6.2000200@gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1

  I am gonna draw the wrath of The True Believers with this comment but here
goes anyway...The rear brakes on Vanagons are funky.

  Not much on them works really right...Oh, they work good enough.  When
everything is exactly as it came from the factory and brand new, they may
have even worked ok.  They do help stop our vans sometimes..

But the adjustments, the self adjusting, the E-brake equalizer cables, the
actuating lever inside, the shoes and drums.... all that seems to always not
work "just right".. They get some braking done despite all that...but when
you attempt to work with all the components...well, I for one find them
'in-elegant' "Funky, for a more technical term..

 Like your 'equalizer bar'....Mine, too, is not square to the cable, but if
you look at it closely, it's 'out of whack' from the factory
anyhow...Asymmetrical as designed.  Still works, but you can't get it
right...  The brake shoes wear out on one end and don't even touch on the
other...Wassup with that, Fritz and Franz? (the Engineer guys who musta been
at the Hofbrau House when they designed some parts of the Vanagon)?
Couldn't you come up with a brake set-up that actually worked 'right'?  If
the whole shoe was actually braking, the rear brakes could have been about
1/3 the size of what we have and still supplied the same stopping power...

  Those funky little clips that are supposed to make the brakes
self-adjusting....You will probably discover them when you attempt to adjust
your brake shoes...They, too, work.....sort of, sometimes.  But oh so
cheezy...

  We do get stopped by those brakes...But they certainly aren't one of the
better designed features of a Vanagon..

  Don Hanson

On Sat, Jul 10, 2010 at 11:02 AM, Mike "Rocket J Squirrel" <
camping.elliott@gmail.com> wrote:

> Thanks, Jay!
>
> Jim Felder wrote, "I would start by jacking up the wheels, popping the
> little rubber cover off the adjuster hole in the backing plate,..."
>
> Where be that rubber cover on the backing plate? Does Bentleys have a
> picture?
>
> And, with the tire off the ground, the brake off, and the (automatic)
> transmission in Neutral, is it normal for the tire to not spin freely,
> but have some drag?
>
>
> --
> Rocky J Squirrel
> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
> 74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
> Bend, OR
> KG6RCR
>
>
>
> Jay lefstein wrote:
>
>> ok, so yeah they show a funky tool ... I work at a shop that was a vw
>> dealer from the 50's till 2003... we don't have or use that tool... may
>> have had it long before i worked there.. i use a rather short flat
>> screwdriver..
>>
>> jack on side of the van up till the wheel will spin ( chock the front
>> wheels first ) .. now adjust till it's tight and then 2 click s back (
>> the wheel should seem slow but free )
>>
>> now do this on the other side...
>>
>> this is simple when you have done it but takes patients   and trial and
>> error when doing it your first time... sorry my description is so poor.
>> i hope it helps
>>
>> ps, this does not guarantee your equaliser will be perfectly straight ..
>> mine isn't .... are you sure you don't have a bigger brake problem? have
>> you taken a drum off? maybe you have a had a sticking P/brake cable?
>>
>> brakes are easy once you have done them with someone who knows... i did
>> them from the bently first time and it worked but now after seeing a guy
>> do them, who has been doing them since vanagons existed i can do it
>> better ;)
>>
>> good luck
>> J
>> On 10-Jul-10, at 10:22 AM, Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
>>
>>  I'm looking at Bentley's and what I see is the top photo on 46.9 which
>>> looks like there has been some disassembly done, using more than a
>>> screwdriver, it seems. Am I not seeing the e-z way to adjust the brakes?
>>>
>>> And, is adjusting the brakes how one gets that equalizer piece
>>> uncockeyed?
>>>
>>> --
>>> Rocky J Squirrel
>>> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>>> 74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
>>> Bend, OR
>>> KG6RCR
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Jay lefstein wrote:
>>>
>>>> you don't have a  small / med flat screw driver? thats all it takes ;)
>>>> On 10-Jul-10, at 9:59 AM, Mike Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Given that my parking brake doesn't do a whole lot, I climbed under the
>>>>> van to take some slack out of the linkage. I stopped when I saw that
>>>>> the
>>>>> equalizer (Bentleys 46.11) is at quite an angle, not at a right
>>>>> angle to
>>>>> the centerline of the van as I expected. I'm not sure what this
>>>>> means. I
>>>>> don't have the tools to adjust the brakes.
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>> Rocky J Squirrel
>>>>> 84 Westfalia: Mellow Yellow ("The Electrical Banana")
>>>>> 74 Westrailia: (Ladybug Trailer company, San Juan Capistrano, Calif.)
>>>>> Bend, OR
>>>>> KG6RCR
>>>>>
>>>>
>>