Brake shoes, drums, levers and spreaders, adjustment and issues with new parts

I’m beginning to wonder what mine is like and I may have to take a drum off to have a look.

 

Another aspect of the miss match, albeit a small one, is that the old rivited lever arm is 4mm thick and the new longer arm is thinner at 3mm thick. This makes the lever arm wobble side to side with the new pin. The old riveted arm, which I'm now using, now sits nice and snugg, with little wobble side to side but still nice an smooth back and forth as the cable pulls.

 

I had to use some washers.

 

What brand are the shoes?

 

I'm not by them at the moment, but they are from Schofield and this is the best photo I have.

https://www.alanhschofield.com/ourparts/prod_2627232-Rear-Brake-Shoes-127279-211698537N.html

 

I'd be interested. OE part numbers are easy to stamp on but increasingly the parts they are assigned to are absolute garbage. Schofield's don't mention a manufacturer Were they in a printed box?

 

Yes, I think it was a Forse box or something like that.

 

Forst.
These are widely sold. Heritage and Camper Van Culture for example under the Forst brand. Interestingly the part number on the shoes doesn't conform to Schofield's listing.

They list the correct number in the ad, which if you cross reference with Autodoc gives no SF cross reference. I wonder what that means the differences are. May be a red herring but I'd be looking to the correct part number from someone like TRW

 

When I compared my old shoes with the new ones, other than the wrongly positioned hole for the spring, they looked very similar and I think the depth of the slot in the shoe was also similar. I'll try to measure when I get back home.

 

Ignore the reference to Beetle. It was the last car I searched on for Marge's brake components...just a thought and probably nowt coz I imagine if all the main suspects are selling these then they must work...

 

Well after putting it all back together, it feels a lot better but unfortunately I will still need to weld the slot .....as suspected and suggested by somebody here


The lever still needs too much movement before the brakes engage. Beer and crisps are needed.

 

Observations on parts compared to my old parts (which I think where T25 - shoes with riveted handbrake lever arm and metal clip on front brake shoe)

New parts
Handbrake lever arm too long (about 1cm). The arm overlaps the hole for lower retaining spring and can interfere and get trapped by the spring, if the spring is installed as it should be with the long arm facing outwards.
Handbrake lever arm is 3mm thick metal instead of 4mm. The pin that is designed to hold lever arm to the shoe is designed for a 4mm arm. This can be resolved with a thicker washer, but the thinner lever arm wobbles a lot more than the equivalent 4mm lever arm and contributes to the risk that the arm tangles with lower return spring.
Space bar slots are too deep (handbrake side, 17mm instead of around 11mm tbc) resulting in the handbrake lever bar having excessive travel before engaging the shoe and so exacerbating the long lever arm and thinner arm issues mentioned above.

Next step, next week, weld up slot and redo

 

Yes, but apart from that it’s fine.

 

I found a few pics of mine from about 15 years ago, the only parts I reused were the spreader bar, handbrake lever and the adjusters. The spreader bar has never been welded.
And I found a pic, possibly from the samba, of one that is like yours was.

 

Thanks and yes the bottom photo looks similar to what I had.

As an aside, the attached link to an American web site shows that '78 Bays onwards possibly had self adjusting brakes.

https://volkswagen.7zap.com/en/usa/type 2/t2/1978-29/6/609-49010/

 

This is mine 79 Double Cab
With self adjusters.

Sent from my SM-G981B using Tapatalk

 

Cheers Ian, classic Liverpool, somebody stole your wheel and left you a brick!! (said one Scouser to another )

 

Following last week's adventures, I welded up my spacer bars and also drilled a hole in the brake webbing to stop the top return spring warping due to the extra 2cm of distance they were having to cope with...which had started to happen.



I started welding the spacer bar slot planning to move from the 17mm down to about 12mm. But I realised that going that far meant the spacer bar was resting permanently on the handbrake lever and not on the brake shoe slot as intended. So I ended up at 15mm.


I've refitted everything and the brakes and importantly the handbrake is working...mostly.

Question for the knowledgeable, how long in distance does it take for rubbing shoes to heat up the drum? I ask, as to adjust my brakes to a sensible point in the garage, I'm having to live with a slight noise and slight friction when I spin the tyre manually. It may be because my drums are not perfectly true, but they look good. So I was hoping a short bit of driving will sort it out. I did a test drive for a mile with no heat apparent and the brakes became quieter and I'm going to adjust again tomorrow, but wanted to ask you opinion.
Ta.

PS, I know this is basic, but after the saga last week, I'm not sure anymore

 

Usually you should get just a little continous rubbing noise when its all set up , throughout 360 degrees of rotation. You need to rotate the wheel at least 180 degrees to check - warped drums become oval.

If the noise/light drag comes and goes thats a bit of warpage, or you set up with warped drums on their long axis of warping and its just skimming the drum every 180 degrees.
If it binds up solid every 180 degrees, the drums are warped, and you set up on the warped drums short axis, then you would then have to consider new drums..
did you check the drum inside diameter against spec also before widening the shoe spacing with the welds ?
I am sure most of what you are doing is overcoming wrong parts, maybe part of it is drum wear.

 

Mike, you may have hit the nail on its' head, so to speak. Stupidly, I'd not measured my drums, both are just over 254mm, so way outside the wear limit of 253.5mm (edit)....eeek.

So of to the shops, unless anybody has some old drums that are fit for purpose? @davidoft ??