Date:         Fri, 3 May 1996 16:41:31 +0200 (MET DST)
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From:         Darie Duclos <darie@tell.ascom.ch>
Subject:      drum brake adjustment


Hi Volks,
	a couple of brake-related questions. I changed the cylinders
on my rear brakes (well I've changed one now, will do the other
one tonight). I didn't actually have to take the brakes shoes
off, just a couple of springs and the adjusting bar in between
them. As far as I could see, not a lot of brake fluid was lost.
After the first cylinder was changed and everything was back 
together, the brake pedal hit the floor quite easily and
the bus stopped, but very slowly. Pumping the brake pedal caused
a little bit more resistance but not much improvement in stopping.

	I tried adjusting the brakes as I had done on my Subaru,
that is, rolling backwards and slamming down the brake pedal
several times in a row. Does this work for the brakes on the
Vanagon as well? It was late and I didn't get much of a chance
to test how well the procedure had succeeded. 
	
	So my questions are:

1 - How do you adjust the brakes so that they are tight again?
2 - How much fluid can be lost without having to bleed the
    brakes? (My german manual says (I think) that "If you do
    not replace the cylinder immediately, you should bleed the
    brakes as too much oil may be lost.." I replaced the cylinder
    as immediately as I could.)
3 - How precisely do you have to center the brake shoes again after
    this procedure? I centered them by moving them around until I
    could feel the same distance between the pad and the rim of
    the part that holds it all around both pads. Is this good enough?
4 - When I first removed the housing I noticed that the brake shoes
    were unevenly "dirty" (they weren't really worn even). They 
    weren't quite centered and the top part of them was "clean"
    whereas the bottom part (2/3 of the length on one) was very dirty
    as if it had not been rubbing on anything for some time. Is this
    a sign of *really* bad centering? Is this a very bad thing? Could
    it account for poor braking performance? Or could the fact that
    they never got fully pushed against the drum be due to cylinders
    gone bad? (I only knew to change the cylinders because the mechanic
    told me to and I forgot to ask him how he knew  :-}  )
5 - The hand-brake adjustment was loosened for the procedure and
    tightened again after. It felt ok, but after the rolling backwards
    and braking, it was very high. Does this adjustment have to be
    done only once the brakes have fully tightened again? Or was
    it something else I did wrong?


BTW: I did this without using the 46mm socket (no way that thing is
     moving anyway). It's just a couple of bolts holding the housing
     on (one broke when putting it back in though, arg).

Thanks!!
Darie
'86 Westy