Date:         Thu, 6 May 1999 10:48:50 -0700
Reply-To:     Chris Paquette <cp@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Chris Paquette <cp@IX.NETCOM.COM>
Subject:      Rear "Self-Adjusting" Brakes... Don't
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Greetings, All:

When I initially got my '88 Westy about 6 months ago, all was well until I
noticed the brake pedal was going "soft" and I had to pump the pedal to make
it come back firm. I took it to a good mechanic (as recommended by a friend
and fellow Westy owner) who diagnosed the problem as the rear self-adjusting
brakes needing to be adjusted. He did this, and the pedal was good for maybe
three days, then the same thing happened.

I took it back. He adjusted the rear brakes again. It was good for another
couple of days, and the now the same thing has happened. There are times
when the brake pedal goes all the way down to metal, can't go down any
further, but the bus is still rolling forward, which, um, concerns me.

Questions: Based on your experience, does the "out of adjustment
self-adjusting rear brakes" diagnosis seem accurate? If not, what else could
it be?

If adjusting them doesn't work as a long-term solution, do I need to replace
the rear brakes completely? What's a ballpark figure for how much this
costs?

Chris
'88 Westy, "Rozinante"
Los Angeles