Date:         Thu, 12 Jan 95 13:08:49 PST
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         David.Kao@Eng.Sun.COM (David Kao)
Subject:      Re: Brake service

>>
>>My Bentley manual has this in a "caution" box in 46[Brake-Mechanical
>>Components]:
>>
>>"When machining brake discs, equal amounts must be taken off each side of
>>disc.  Never machine one side only."
>>
>>..and the wear limit is 13mm...
>>
>>
>>bcnu - G
>>grungy@bcm.tmc.edu
>>"His fingers danced a crazy rumba all their own..."
>>
>>
>>

My 84 vanagon, at 101500 miles, has gone through brake jobs many times so far.
Since grinding rotors costed about $8.00 a piece in my local gas statitions, I
decided, what the heck, no grinding!!! I just replaced pads and that's it.

I replaced rotors the 2nd time when the 2nd set of pads worn out because the
rotors seemed have reached the thickness boundary. The 3rd set of pads went
again a while back and I am running with the 4th set of pads. 

As far as rear brake drums, they seem last forever. I have taken the drum off many
times and each time I was disappointed that nothing needed to be done.

Installing new pads without grinding rotors seemed work fine. I did not feel any
brake problems. I did encounter a hicup and realized that after market pads did 
not work well. I tried several brands, including Metal Master. I ended up with
2 sets of after market pads sitting around in my garage. One of them were on the
vanagon at least 500 miles. After replacing with dealer pads the brake returned
to normal.

David Kao
83 Westy, 84 Vanagon 
dkao@eng.sun.com