Date: Tue, 17 Nov 2009 12:58:57 -0500
Reply-To: pdooley <psdooley@VERIZON.NET>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: pdooley <psdooley@VERIZON.NET>
Subject: Re: Intermittent brake sticking
In-Reply-To: <2cb866ef0911170929n1f1219c0y76f124299b5048fd@mail.gmail.com>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
My money is on the caliper.
They can freeze up.
Even with flushing, if you don't fully compress the piston(s) into the
caliper you retain old brake fluid. This can cause problems.
The ideal procedure would be to fully disassemble the calipers and wheel
cylinders every 2 years to make sure no old fluid remains, but that's a bit
tedious. I like to just squish as much out as possible and change every 2
yrs.
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
Jonathan Poole
Sent: Tuesday, November 17, 2009 12:29 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: Intermittent brake sticking
Hello list,
A problem is slowly developing on my '83 air cooled westy. A couple
of times in the past week of around town driving I have noticed a
little brake drag (while at a light for instance or when stopping and
starting a lot). I also, after short highway drives I have noticed a
slight burning smell a few times. This didn't immediately remind me
of typical brake pad smells, probably because I am running some
organic type pads up front. In any case I have tracked the problem
down to the front left/drivers wheel only. I have not been able to
get the brakes to stick while testing but it seems that they have only
done this after a lot of town/stop and go driving. The only recent
change that my van has seen is a move to coastal carolina where it is
wet and salty. I need to get my van out of here before it starts
rusting, but that's another story. I have spent months in different
coastal areas in this van recently and have never had this problem so
I don't know if this is related.
Around 2 years ago I replaced most of the brake system including
rotors, pads, bearings and hoses up front - shoes, drums, slaves,
springs, hoses etc. in back and a new master cylinder and copious
flushing. I also dissassembled and cleaned out the balancer/check
ball thing at the same time. I haven't adjusted, bled or tinkered
with the brakes in quite some time. All friction surfaces are in good
shape though and I have plenty of pad/shoe left.
A few other details. My parking brake is a bit tight and only clicks
once, or twice typically. When doing a lot of city driving I
sometimes get annoying brake squeak from the rear wheels I think.
This always goes away when I get out of the city. I've only noticed
this a few times (Boston, NYC and other similar places where the
driving involved a lot of medium speed stops).
I'm not sure how to proceed on this one as I shouldn't have a
collapsing hose since they are fairly new. I suspect that something
is a bit out of adjustment and that either the sea level air pressure
or rust has caused the driver caliper to not always release fully. It
doesn't bind tightly though and it is hard to notice. My infrared
thermometer is really helpful though once it did smoke a bit from that
wheel. I hope I didn't cook the grease. It is synthetic so hopefully
that is no problem.
Any suggestions for adjustments, troubleshooting etc. are appreciated.
Thanks,
Jonathan Poole
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