Thursday, August 14, 2008

VW Brake retainer


Brake retainer
Originally uploaded by Phil_Parker.
What a pain in the backside these things are to fit !

The washer hooks over a pin that comes in from the rear of the brakes. In between is a spring to retain the brake shoes. The new ones in the kit are really strong and (IMHO after loads of attemots and some bad langauge) a bit too long. In the end the old ones were checked over and looked fine so they were fitted.

The "trick" seemed to be to have two people. One holds the pint in place and the other uses a pair of long nosed pliers to grab the sides of the washer. They push it onto the pin with the spring in place and then twist it into position.

What a game. Still once this is done the hub goes back on and the brakes just need to be adjusted. Queue half an hours faffing around and yet another complete failure to do the job.

In theory adjusting for wear is a simple case of turning the star adjusters to bring the shoes closer to the wheel. Keep turning until the wheel won't rotate and then back off three or four clicks.

I know my adjusters are free and yet no matter how much I turned them the brakes didn't come on. To be honest I can never work out which way the things have to rotate anyway and the stupid Haynes manual doesn't help because despite showing the direction, quite where this view is obtained from (front or back of the drum) isn't made clear.

Anyway, I have to do the other side so perhaps I'll remember to note this down. And since the van has to go in for some front end re-torquing I'll get it done by someone who knows what he is doing. And has a lift. Which makes the job sooo much easier.

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