my new Towd

[Jerry75Crown]

Mr Sharkmiester
I just finished building my new baby truck to pull behind my Crown.
http://www.peak.org/~jerryc/babytruck.jpg
You being a rabbit kinda' guy might be able to help me with a problem I'm haveing.
I had to build two trucks to get one for myself. The first one, an 82 had problems with the rear brakes seizing up. (all new stuff) It appeared to me that the little self adjusting wedge falls down and doesn't let the shoes return after they are pressed. It finally fixed it's self.
I just finished the second truck, MINE, an '81 diesel, the motor ,the wiring, the lights, the brakes, new heater core, grill and hood and so on. She's a sweetheart. The rear brakes are doing the same thing as the other truck except not quite so bad. The more I step on the brakes, the more the little wedge falls down and the tighter the brakes get. Sooooooo has this ever happened to you? There's not enough horse power to be dragging the brakes.
I hope you can help.
Jerry Campbell

[Sharkey]

Jerry, from what I understand, that wedge issue is due to reusing the old wedge when doing a brake job. It's always recommended to put new wedges in to prevent this. If your've already done this, I dunno. Could be that the volks over at the VW Vorex forum would have a better idea.

[Jerry75Crown]

Thanks for the speedy reply. I put everything new on the rear axle except the wedges. They didn't come with the spring kit so I took a couple off a rabbit I had for parts. I will try to find new ones on monday. In the mean time I'm just going to take them out.
Thanks again
Jerry

[jerry75 Crown]

Just a follow up.
I got the little wedges from VW. and put them in. I have been driveing with them for a couple of weeks now. Sometimes they seem a little too snug and then they seem alright. They don't seem to stay too tight. So it seems new wedges solved my problem.
Thanks for the lead.
See Ya
Jerry

[Sharkey]

Good to hear that this helped. I am looking at doing a complete rebuild on the rear drums on my BIODZL Rabbit, and will need to source new cylinders, wedges, etc. I'm swapping over to the 200mm drums that came on the Caddys and Dashers. These were removed from my EV when I did the rear disc brake swap. I figure if I have to rebuild brakes, they might as well be upgraded brakes.

Here's a pic of the car for views:

[jerry75Crown]

I got cylinders and a spring kit at Knecks (I know thats not the right spelling) cheapo autoparts. They were cheap. The shoes came from Auto Zone, $9.95 with lifetime warrenty. No one but VW had the Wedges. They were $3 and something apeice. The cheapest brakes I've ever done.
I saw on the Caddy Forum where people are swapping the drums for disks. I think I will do that sometime in the future.
Thanks again
Jerry

[Sharkey]

Jerry, What you need to know about disc brakes is that on the VW A1 chassis, it is considered an "apperance only" upgrade. Our vehicles have too little weight in the rear to make use of the additional stopping power that discs provide. The common wisdom is that better compound drum shoes will give more than enough stopping power without doing the swap.

The only real reason most 'dubbers do rear discs is to have the bling of a disc showing through their custom wheels instead of a tiny drum. On the EV, I'm carrying 1000 pounds of batteries in the back seat, I have the extra weight needed to make the discs work for me.

Also, I'm sure that the posts you've read caution you about installing the proper rear brake proportioning valves to correct the disc's hydraulic pressure. This is a most critical step, as without it, you'll have a tendency to lock up the rears in a fast stop (not good). Most of the time, installing the porportioning valves is done at the master cylinder, which requires that you replace the stock MC with a 22mm MC from a 16v Scirocco. This also is advised, as the discs require more pedal travel and pressure and the new MC helps a bit there too. Swapping the flexible lines in the brake system over to teflon/stainless steel will help remove the spongy feel that the rear discs induce.

If you do a disc swap, make sure that you use the Mk3 and up rear discs. The Mk2 calipers and hardware will fit, but the parking brakes are next to useless, and tend to freeze up with a little bit of moisture (rust).

All told, I think that on the EV, discs were a good idea, I can get the benefits of discs due to the added weight, and with that weight I needed additional stopping power.

Having said that, I would neve do the swap again, even though I have all the parts on hand. The BIODZL Rabbit will stay drums.

[Jerry75Crown]

Thanks for that info. You saved me a lot of reading and asking questions. I really don't need MORE brakes or better looks (weeeell). I was thinking of the ease of service in the long run.
Jerry

[Jerry75 Crown]

Sorry I guess I pushed the wrong button and put the message in the wrong place.

[Sharkey]

No problem, Jerry, I just used a little bit of database magic and moved your replies to the correct thread.

Some people do point out that the disc brakes can be less effort to maintain, although it's a lot of work to do the swap. In fact, I was just over at the VW Vortex forum and noticed this thread about parking brake cables, apparently, the Caddy's are a bit of a problem to find long enough cables to make the rear disc conversion work.