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On 14 Jun 2001, at 2:37, MotorHole@aol.com wrote: > Question: What is the optimal amount of travel one > should have before the brakes seriously engage or offer stopping > resistance? I'm not referring to the 5-7mm freeplay - (I have 6mm > right now) and not counting the minimum travel from pedal to firewall > 8&7/8 inches (I'm a bit short with 8.5 inches right now) I'm talking > about travel before engagement but after freeplay - I'm running about > 1.5 inches right now, but shouldn't you be able to reduce it to almost > nothing ? or do you want some? Your pedal position and free play sounds fine. I think the 1.5 inches is actually pretty tight, unless you're just measuring what you can push down by hand as you measure. The 1.5" stroke measurement is pretty much a function of how the brakes are adjusted (and how sticky the front caliper pistons are.) If that number is too small (your 1.5" is pretty small) then there is a pretty good chance that the brakes will be dragging somewhere and this will overheat them. You want the clearances to be sufficient to avoid any kind of drag unless you're braking. Front calipers which are starting to seize up will not retract much and will lead to a high pedal. Because this happens slowly we don't tend to notice it, but when they are fixed the pedal will be much lower and people will often complain because they think this means that something was done wrong in the brake job. Drum brakes that are too loose and need adjustment will lead to an excessively low pedal, whick will come right up as the brakes are adjusted. As usual, the correct setup is somewhere in the middle. - Jim Adney jadney@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711-3054 USA ------------------------------------------------------------------- List info at http://www.vwtype3.org/list or mailto:help@vwtype3.org