Date:         Thu, 4 Aug 1994 13:26:24 -0600
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         jgladu@bcm.tmc.edu (John Gladu)
Subject:      Do as I say, not... [brakes]

Learned another valuable "life lesson" while using The Bozobus for moving
our household a couple of weeks ago...

The brakes needed adjusting (pedal went toooo far, with too little
retro-acceleration) so I sat down at 7am to adjust the fronts before going
to work.  Left side, no problem.  Right side, first surprise: mud-dauber
nest on the forward shoe.  Second not-so-surprising surprise: the top
adjusting star won't budge.  Use the hammer on the back end of the big
Craftsman screwdriver.  It moves.  Get close to final, walk around and hand
pump the brake pedal to center the shoes.  Look in the hole - it's all wet!
(And most of the nest is gone.)

Something is leaking brake fluid.  I immediately suspect that the cylinder
has failed, but it looks okay (using a flashlight, through the adjusting
hole).  Finish the adjustment.  Get in the car and step on the brake - the
pedal squishes to the floor almost exactly like when bleeding the brakes...

Used the garden hose to wash all the fluid out of the drum (in the hopes of
saving the shoes).  Take the (*sigh*) Toyota to work.  Pick up all the
spare brake parts from the old house that night (I've got new spare
cylinders and shoes stocked).

Take the next day off from work to fix this (gotta have Mr. Bozo to finish
moving!). Pull the drum off and examine.

There's a tiny cut in the upper part of the transfer brake line from my
adjusting screwdriver.  Won't need those spare cylinders after all.  But
cylinders you can get...  My guru laughs about availability of these lines
and says "make one".  I laugh and say "I've got spares in DryDockII".  He
says "those are GOLD, Grungy" and asks for a parking brake handle, and I
say "I'll check".

It took an hour of pounding to get the right drum off of one of my spare
front ends (*really* rusted on).  I was hitting the drum with my 16oz claw
hammer with the INTENT of shattering it (the drum) toward the end, just to
get that damned line.  It finally came off with a breaker bar working two
of the wheel bolts for leverage (and bending them) to get it freed up.
Remove the line (carefully!) and notice that it's /different/ from Bozo's
original - much longer, snaking it's way to the lower wheel cylinder.
*sigh*

I wound up (carefully) hand bending it to fit and (hopefully) nothing will
be rubbing on it to wear through it.

Moral: watch out for the brake line when adjusting your brakes!

bcnu - Grungy  '61 dddPanel '68,'69 Bugs '90 Vanagon '67 Bus
.opinions are just that.obviously.