I had a dragging brake caliper = problem several years ago on my ’82. After much frustration and work, I decided to disassemble and = inspect the master cylinder. I = found that the piston inside consists of two halves that screw together in the = middle, and that they had come partly unscrewed, causing one of the two circuits to = hold an air bubble in it, since the bleed port to the reservoir never opened to = that circuit when the pedal was released. I screwed the pistons back together tight, and the problem was solved. I guess it’s = possible that you may have a similar problem.

Mike Moery, = Anchorage, AK

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'Ol Bessie '82TD Westy

-----Original = Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing = List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of KENWILFY@AOL.COM
Sent: Friday, November = 02, 2001 11:26 AM
To: = vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Frustration in = Brake Land

I have a '80 Vanagon Westie = here that is trying to drive me insane.  The guy brought it in to have = some brake work done.  He could see that one of his calipers was leaking = and draging and the pedal was feeling soft.  
He told me to replace the brake booster, the master cylinder, and the = front calipers and whatever the brake system needed.
I had a set of known good, used calipers that we decided to use for the = front and I set my helper on this project because I was busy with two other = vans.
My helper replaced the booster, the master cylinder, and the two front calipers.  We then bled the system.  Pedal was still low and = it seemed that you could pump it up, then let off of it, and after a few seconds = it was low again.  I then inspected the rear brakes.  One wheel = cylinder was bad, I replaced that and I also had a thin drum on one side.  I put = a new drum on and also a new set of shoes.  We bled it three more times.  Still low pedal, kinda smooshie.  I went out and bought a = power bleeder (Mity Vac).  I had wanted one of these for a while any way.  Bled it again, still the same.  I inspected the metal lines = and the rubber lines and found that all of the rubber lines had bulges in them. =  I thought I had finally found the problem.  I replaced all of the = lines with new ones.  Bled the system again.  Still the same!!

Any suggestions?  I am starting to suspect that my helper did = something wrong when he installed the brake booster, however I can't figure out = how the brake booster could cause a low, smooshie pedal.  The only other = thing I can think of is that the one of the parts we put on is defective. =  Any help would be appreciated.  Usually brake jobs are so simple, this = one is starting to get to me.

Thanks,
Ken Wilford
John 3:16
www.vanagain.com
Phone: (856)-765-1583
Fax: (856)-327-2242