Date: Mon, 31 Mar 97 05:09:46 UT
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@vanagon.com>
From: "Dennis Haynes" <dhaynes57@msn.com>
Subject: RE: Upgraded Brakes Bus/Vanagon?
I would not consider 914 Brakes to be an upgrade for a Vanagon. Although
there may be some clamping force advantage, there is no more rotor surface to
provide friction or dissipate heat. Since you have an 85, a real easy
conversion would be to install the spindle set up from an 86 or later. The
pads are much larger and the caliper is now a single piston. The rotors are
increased in thickness from 13 to 15 mm. Note that you can only cut 2mm total
off these rotors before they are scraps. I find that this means one cut if
you are lucky. When purchasing pads and shoes, see your dealer. I have found
that all after market either wear out too fast or they do not have enough
friction which means increased pedal effort and more heat to warp and wear the
rotors. Note the factory fitt-ment for the rears are now metallic. The
diameter of the rear drums is very critical. An oversize drum will cause a
poor contact pattern between the shoes and drums resulting in less than ideal
braking. Since the cylinders and the adjusters are both at the top of the
shoes, only the tops get worn. I space out the bottom shoe rests with shims
to compensate for this design flaw. 9/16 external snap rings work great for
this purpose. With new shoes and rotors, you can still fit three of these
shims on each side. I hope this helps.
Dennis
-----Original Message-----
>From: vanagon@lenti.med.umn.edu On Behalf Of vwbus@netbiz.net
Sent: Thursday, March 27, 1997 12:23 AM
To: Multiple recipients of list
Subject: Upgraded Brakes Bus/Vanagon?
An article this month in Euro Car got my mind wondering a little bit,
no one is going to argue I'm sure that late Bus and Vanagon brakes
could not use a little upgrading, well the article details a cheap
upgrade to Porsche 914 brakes instead. The 914 uses an ATE caliper
very much similar to the Vanagon, the primary difference with the Bus
being the inlet of the hydraulic pipe. Now the upgrade is the fact
that early BMW 3 series calipers are a direct bolt on replacement for
earlier 914's and fit with slight machining for offset on late 914's.
The interesting thing is that even though the caliper is much larger
physically with a larger piston for greater hydraulic advantage and
larger pads, the mounting holes line up, so why not maybe the same
mounting on Buses and Vanagons I wonder. Anyway the '85 needs new
calipers anyway, the 914 and 3 series used 14"? or 15"? wheels so the disc
size may have been similar as may be the mounting pattern and offset,
as the 914 seemed to use the hub integral in disc system like a bus,
hence again maybe offset OK as well and slight machining or spacers
not much of a problem anyway. Anyone with a 914 want to help or
conjecture? I think I'm going to go looking for a junkyard 3 series
caliper to find out anyway. A little more clamping force and fade
resistance would be real nice for a Van particularly, now the Bus
install would require a bit of piping changes. Anyway may not even
be worth it, I'm going to look tomorrow at the size of the pistons in
the Bus/Van calipers as the "upgrade" size was listed in the article
but slips my mind here.
John
vwbus@netbiz.net
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