Re: [T3] Car sitting for years,clutch stuck

["Jim Adney" <jadney@vwtype3.org>]

On 7 Dec 2001, at 15:14, Per Lindgren wrote:

> I had the rear brakes bind hard on a Vanagon Syncro (4wd). It had been sitting
> with the handbrake on for one month, and I just loosened the brake handle, put
> it in low gear and made an attempt to pull it out. It didnt work. Both right
> side wheels were spinning (rear left was binding). So I pulled the knob for the
> rear differential lock, the rear axle locked with a "thunk" and still the brake
> shoes didnt budge. The car actually dragged the rear end with the front wheels!
> But after about 10 minutes, it broke loose. I also tried to hammer on the
> drum/rim with a sledgehammer, to no help.

Right, it's amazing how much stronger our brakes are than our engines, plus 
the fact that once one wheel brakes loose, we're pretty much left spinning 
our wheel! 

That's why it works so much better to just brake one shoe at a time loose 
with a punch from the inside. This works because the punch exerts a force 
against the shoe which the shoe was not designed to be stiff against, unlike 
its stiffness against the rotation of the drum. With the punch, you're working 
on just one shoe, one end of that shoe, and you can apply the force in a 
direction to slightly "lift" the shoe from the drum. This way you can actually 
peel the shoe off the drum, but the effect you'll notice is that it just finally 
pops loose completely.

Still, the best advice is to not leave the parking brake engaged when the car 
is left parked long term.


-
Jim Adney
jadney@vwtype3.org
Madison, WI 53711-3054
USA

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