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Jim Adney wrote: >The end result is that old rusty calipers give you a very high and >hard pedal. Blocked hoses make this even worse. At the same time, the >rotors run extremely hot, the gas mileage goes down a bit, and you'll >run thru a set of pads in 500 miles. > > > Well, the pads weren't dragging- they actually had plenty of life left in them, so I suppose that the hoses were so blocked that they weren't doing a thing to those calipers. Effectively, I only had rear brakes. I probably drove on severely diminished brakes when I drove it the 200 miles from where I bought it. Sitting for another year probably froze up the calipers once and for all.. >Everyone's first reaction to getting back in a car that has had its >system rebuilt is that the pedal is now spongy, but it's actually >back to the way it felt when it was new. > > This is what I was hoping was the case- again, it's been a very long time I've driven a non-power assist vehicle that had brakes that were as good as new. In fact, I may never have! >OTOH, it's also possible that your pedal is too low. If everything >has been well bled (and there's no trick to this, it's easy) then the >next thing to check is the rear wheel brake adjustment. These are >often set too loose, just because they're not centered as the >adjustment is done. > > > This was the first thing I did. Initially when I put everything together, the pedal had lots of travel. I thought I'd adjusted the rear brakes properly at first, so I went back and revisited and indeed I had a lot of adjustment left to go. This helped quite a bit. I also adjusted the pedal. It had a lot of slack initially- about 20mm of travel before the rod hit the piston in the MC. I adjusted this out by moving the pedal adjuster plate until I got around 5mm of freeplay. I seem to have the requisite hair under 9" of travel before the pedal bottoms out. It still won't go to the firewall unless I apply extreme force maybe (which I have not applied). >Centering is done by rotating the wheel while you do the adjustment. >Rotate it both ways, to push the shoe into it's centered, or minimum, >position. I will sometimes get in the car, start the engine, and run >the wheels forward and backwards applying the brakes lightly in each >direction, then get out and recheck the brake adjustment. > > > I'll need to do this. I'll explore this tomorrow. It's raining cats and dogs today. >One thing you can do is to set the parking brake and then see how the >pedal feels. That limits the pedal motion to the front circuit only. >If the pedal feels extra high when you have the parking brake on, >then the front brakes are probably fine. > > > Just performed this test and indeed the brakes are higher with the parking brake on. >I've actually also wondered about brake pads and shoes. Does anyone >know if some brands or materials tend to be "softer" than others, to >the extent that they'll compress and require more pedal travel? > > > I would imagine that there is some give to the material and it may be variable between brands, but I can't imagine it's terribly compressible- certainly not enough to notice significantly in the pedal feel. Too soft and they'd wear in minutes. And they can't be harder than the rotors or drums, obviously. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list | mailto:gregm@vwtype3.org ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~