Date: Sat, 2 Oct 2010 15:08:28 -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: Rear Brake Shoe Spring Clips
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="UTF-8"; reply-type=original
some of my thoughts .....
Rear brake shos on a vanagon are easy with a few tricks.
It can be done with the rear wheel flange on, but it's much easier with the
wheel mounting flange removed.
And there are advantages to taking that off, checking a few things, and
putting it back on.
Get both drums off so you can look at one side for reference while you do
the other side. Always and only do one side at a time. Never mix parts
side-to-side, the self adjusters are threaded opposite of each other.
first - undo the round things on top of small coil springs in the middle of
the shoes..
push the round thing in hold it with a pliers ...turn 90 degrees to
disengage how it grabs the-pin like thing it hooks to coming through the
backing plate. Do both shoes of course.
second.....use a pliers to unhook the srping going across the bottom. and
the light weight one going up to the self adjuster gimzo. .
three ............ grab the bottom of the shoe ( not where the brake
material is, just bare metal ) with a pliers, and pull it back and around
and unhook it from the slot it' s siting in at the bottom.
remove the upper threaded self-adjsut rod thing at any point in the process.
when you have a shoe unhooked at the bottom, it will relieve tension on the
rather strong spring that holds the upper part of the shoe to the backing
plate.
.....and ...here is what I think is the most useful trick in the whole
process...
these upper holding springs would be real hard to deal with with say a
pliers..
but, *using the shoe itself* as a lever..
use the shoe as a lever to unhook or hook that upper spring.
that will get you started. I bet I could write at least 20 little deails or
tips or nuances of getting it to turn out really nicely in the end. 30
even.
And as drum brakes go ..
they are not bad, not at all.
Sure is nice not to fiddle with tiny crimp-clips to held the parking brake
lever onto the brake shoe ....as some brake shoe designs use, for example.
oh ...lube the points on the backing plate that the shoes slide on ...
raised flat spots .....anti-seize compund there.
If those slide-contact points are left unlubed ..you get a squeak as the
shoes move out to the drum.
Lube all pivot and contact points sparingly - anti-seize compound or
lubriplate white grease.
-------------------------- extra -
another important thing going together ..make sure the parking brake
adjustment is backed off, so parking brake cable tension on the lever is out
of the picture while first setting up the shoe adjustment at the adjuster
threaded thing.
It's also good to know that 10mm nut on the parking brake cable
adjustmet, under the middle of the van ...to know that's not rusted there,
those threads.
Last mechanical step is parking brake cable *after* shoes are well
adjusted. Then always bleed new brake fluid to brakes just worked on.
I'f I'm bleeding the rear brakes, I bleed the clutch slave cylinder too
...it's right there and it's good to have fresh fluid in that system too.
jobs sure expand to me ..
next thing I know, I'm cleaning the light rust off the outside of the drum,
and painting it with high temp flat black stove paint ..
then I can't stand that light rust on the flange where the drum sits, so
gotta treat that too. Mabye the inside face of the drum that sits on the
flange.
and of course no one has every put any anti-seize or form of light lube on
the wheel studs usually ......so gotta do that too.
and heck...
mabye those parking brake cables would like some heavy duty lubed sparyed
into them to keep them sliding smothly ( that is something you want to make
sure is at least sliding properly some ..
you can have seized up parking brake cables ( or just one ) and it will feel
like good tension on the parking brake handle, but the brake shoes are not
really moving out to the drum ... It's good to check that the parking brake
lever at the shoes moves nicely, and returns.
And the parking brake handle pivot points and ratchet have never been lubed
either ..so gotta do that too.
so many details when you get into every last little thing that could use
attention or at least checking.
But if you do all that ..ever detail ..
and check every little part of the mechanism and now it works...
you'll have fine brake performaance, good pedal feel, nicely lasting brake
components etc.
scott
www.turbovans.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "J Stewart" <fonman4277@COMCAST.NET>
To: <vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM>
Sent: Saturday, October 02, 2010 10:43 AM
Subject: Rear Brake Shoe Spring Clips
> Even though my current '85 is my 10th Bus/Westy, I've never had to deal
> with these &%$# things before, either the bus didn't have them or I never
> needed to replace the rear shoes. Now I need to replace the rear shoes on
> my '85 and I can't figure out how the come out. Someone enlighten me
> please! How do those damn things come out?! Thanks, Jeff
>
>
>
> Jeff Stewart
