Show Posts
31
Exterior / Early (Mark I) Brakes
« on: February 01, 2016, 09:32:52 pm »
Well, this job sucked.
I can understand the thought behind the design with the retaining pins. In theory no bolts should have to be removed to change the pads. Pull off the spring clip, slide out some guides, swap out the pads, done. How cool is that?
In practice, the pins were totally frozen in place. It took me hours to do one side. Banging them out with a drift as prescribed in the Bentley caused them to simply mushroom. I ended up putting a nut a few turns onto the end of an M10 bolt (and old TDI main-cap bolt) to form a cup, and then banging on that with a big hammer for a while. This kept the end from mushrooming out any more. Lots of heat from a torch helped a lot.
Eventually they were in far enough to reach the mushroomed ends. A large (10-12mm) drill bit took off the ends and I was able to remove them from there. I then put them in my drill press and filed them down slightly, then polished. They went in much easier, but still barely snug. They're not tight to the pads anyway; it's the spring clip's job to keep the pins in place.
The calliper piston is simply pushed back in once some brake fluid from the reservoir has been removed. Unfortunately, due to the large outer-pad holder, my fancy calliper piston tool wouldn't fit, so I had to use a C-clamp. Very little force is actually needed if your callipers are in good condition, so a C-clamp works fine on these.
All this to install whatever quality you get for $18 (that's $4.50 a pad) from the people in town. But I found someone who makes '93 Eurovan cross-drilled and slotted rotors. They're made to order, allegedly in 3-4 days, and once I get them I will update this thread. After my last experience barrelling down mountains I searched for a long time to find decent rotors for early Eurovans, so if these turn out to actually fit I'll share the details.
I can understand the thought behind the design with the retaining pins. In theory no bolts should have to be removed to change the pads. Pull off the spring clip, slide out some guides, swap out the pads, done. How cool is that?
In practice, the pins were totally frozen in place. It took me hours to do one side. Banging them out with a drift as prescribed in the Bentley caused them to simply mushroom. I ended up putting a nut a few turns onto the end of an M10 bolt (and old TDI main-cap bolt) to form a cup, and then banging on that with a big hammer for a while. This kept the end from mushrooming out any more. Lots of heat from a torch helped a lot.
Eventually they were in far enough to reach the mushroomed ends. A large (10-12mm) drill bit took off the ends and I was able to remove them from there. I then put them in my drill press and filed them down slightly, then polished. They went in much easier, but still barely snug. They're not tight to the pads anyway; it's the spring clip's job to keep the pins in place.
The calliper piston is simply pushed back in once some brake fluid from the reservoir has been removed. Unfortunately, due to the large outer-pad holder, my fancy calliper piston tool wouldn't fit, so I had to use a C-clamp. Very little force is actually needed if your callipers are in good condition, so a C-clamp works fine on these.
All this to install whatever quality you get for $18 (that's $4.50 a pad) from the people in town. But I found someone who makes '93 Eurovan cross-drilled and slotted rotors. They're made to order, allegedly in 3-4 days, and once I get them I will update this thread. After my last experience barrelling down mountains I searched for a long time to find decent rotors for early Eurovans, so if these turn out to actually fit I'll share the details.
![](http://"http://andrewclink.com/sites/55e282cec648480747ec0f65/assets/567cc6878cdaa7beca0001c9/Pedal_Potentiometer_Top.jpg")
![](http://"http://andrewclink.com/sites/55e282cec648480747ec0f65/assets/567cc6878cdaa7beca0001ca/Pedal_Potentiometer_Linkage.jpg")
