TheSamba.com :: View topic - 67 Standard Peach Kombi, West Palm Beach, FL

Wed Jun 11, 2025 8:12 pm

Got new brake light switches from dune buggy warehouse

Meyle/Bosch 2 Prong Brake Light Switch for 54-66 VW Beetle 113945515HGR

Used a small screwdriver to bleed the switches by pouring a little brake fluid in and pumping it up and down, see bubbles coming out

Installed

Back to how things were before, but now with additional limit switch for the brake pedal .

Wed Jun 11, 2025 8:14 pm

Decided to service my link pins by greasing and turning them.

Lower pin

Upper

Greased center link, and the king pins too.

Wed Jun 11, 2025 8:18 pm

looks sweet !

I love how clean your bus is underneath. I live on a dirt road and all my stuff is covered w dirt. I try my best to keep em clean

Thu Jun 12, 2025 6:25 pm

mtnbus wrote: looks sweet !

I love how clean your bus is underneath. I live on a dirt road and all my stuff is covered w dirt. I try my best to keep em clean

Yeah, lucky enough to have nice paved roads and no hills here in Florida, so this swap meet parts bus can live the easy life :)

Sat Aug 02, 2025 11:18 pm

Finally installed the vintagecarLED bulbs I got a few years ago (2023).

Also it was time to fix the cracked headlight lens. The pic below is from 2011

I had all the parts and also picked up new chrome headlight trim rings.
I had used VW headlight glass
Two styles of buckets and decided to swap out the old parts.

I tried the new Asian chrome rings on the bus without the lights and I could not get them to fit.

The ones on the bus were rusty so I just cleaned them up and reused them for now.

My bus really should have the screws on opposite sides so I’ll order the metal and rubber parts to use the different headlight buckets that go with true correct bus trim rings that I have with the drain holes at the bottom.

Sat Aug 02, 2025 11:25 pm

Parking lights only

Headlights on

The results

I am worried about the bulb life since it has a heatsink to use for cooling but the headlight bucket is sealed.

Sun Aug 10, 2025 9:06 am

My beam with the poly bushings makes groaning suspension noises, like the bushing is dry and rubbing on the raw metal beam.

The original beam grease nipple was removed because it is blocked by the poly bushings from Wagenswest so I drilled and tapped threads for new ones slightly inboard

added 4 grease nipples

pumped grease until it stated to weep out from between the spring plate ends

Still hear the noise, so I may have to pull them out slightly to make sure grease gets around them .

Not sure if I should drill holes on the bushing shaft to allow grease to flow to the outside of the busing. ??

Tue Aug 26, 2025 3:44 pm

After greasing the beam it was still making noises.
A few days later I put the grease gun back on it and put on some vinyl gloves, and held my hand tight over the end of the spring plates.
Then pumped more grease.

Noise is now gone.

Tue Aug 26, 2025 3:46 pm

My reach hatch handle and lock got stuck and the middle fell out.

I ordered a replacement but had to make changes to make it fit since the tab to hold the top of it was too thick.

Tue Aug 26, 2025 3:47 pm

got some tune up and maintenance parts

Tue Aug 26, 2025 4:48 pm

Rear Brakes time.

They don't hold very well.

I assumed after all these years, they are soaked in transmission lube.

Suspicion confirmed

Axle backing plate to bearing hub detail

Tue Aug 26, 2025 4:54 pm

New parts, cleaned up old parts.

New nuts

cleaning parts

top right bearing cap bolt damaged, used a grade 8 nut and bolt until I find an OE one at swap meet

Cap bolts need a lot of torque 59Nm (43Ft-lbs)

This is for my future reference

Almost done

roughed up the inside of the drum

Tue Aug 26, 2025 5:07 pm

The outside of the bearing spacer shown above and below, I learned, is the surface that the oil seal rides on.

Just like a shock absorber or hood strut, if it is not smooth, oil will find a way past the seal.

As you can see when I got the spacer brand new (dark one on the right below), the surface was pretty rough.

as a result, you can see my brakes were pretty much soaked, and have been for a while.

I took the spacers to a machine shop and asked them to polish or sand it smooth (almost like the old spacer shown above on the left).

Trying to get the spacer to look like the bearing surface in the pic below from 2011

I didn't take a pic of it after they smoothed it, but I hope it makes a huge difference.

Sat Sep 06, 2025 8:53 pm

Bus has been running great.
So hey, I decided that’s a great time to start experimenting on stuff.

I wanted to replace service items before they fail and not after, so I decided to rebuild my carb one piece at a time, test drive to see if it makes things better or worse.

First part from the rebuild kit I tried was the accelerator pump diaphragm.
The new part at the top has a strange double diaphragm. Mistake or different design?

I swapped just that one part and the bus ran terrible. It would bog from a standing start all the time.

So I put back the old one and it runs great.
I’m going to look for a carb rebuild kit with a single thin diaphragm.

Sun Sep 07, 2025 9:13 am

don.ville wrote:
First part from the rebuild kit I tried was the accelerator pump diaphragm.
The new part at the top has a strange double diaphragm. Mistake or different design?

Mistake, you could cut off most of the outer side rubber to turn that into a good part. With two it can not flex properly enough.

Mon Sep 08, 2025 4:07 am

Eric&Barb wrote: don.ville wrote:
First part from the rebuild kit I tried was the accelerator pump diaphragm.
The new part at the top has a strange double diaphragm. Mistake or different design?

Mistake, you could cut off most of the outer side rubber to turn that into a good part. With two it can not flex properly enough.

That makes sense. So I need to circumcise the new part. Should I invite friends over for the bris?

I’ll try a different brand. This one came from CIP USA

Tue Sep 09, 2025 5:32 pm

So brakes are better but I don’t think my drums are perfectly round.
After driving several miles on my new shoes I found that O’Reilly’s Auto parts turn drums. So I decided to take them off to get them turned.

This is how the shoes looked.

Tue Sep 09, 2025 6:09 pm

don.ville wrote: So brakes are better but I don’t think my drums are perfectly round.
After driving several miles on my new shoes I found that O’Reilly’s Auto parts turn drums. So I decided to take them off to get them turned.

This is how the shoes looked.

Those shoes look fine. Would help to have some way to know which end is which on each shoe. For instance the lowest one looks like maybe the (left in image) end was against the wheel cylinder, if so it needed the brake adjuster turned tighter to get more of the shoe length against the drum, and let the shoes wear in.

Out of round would cause the brakes to unevenly grab and let up over and over, resulting in a bouncy feel of the brake pedal.

Tue Sep 09, 2025 6:24 pm

Can you measure the diameter of those drums and post it up?

Wed Sep 10, 2025 6:17 am

Eric&Barb wrote:
Those shoes look fine. Would help to have some way to know which end is which on each shoe. For instance the lowest one looks like maybe the (left in image) end was against the wheel cylinder, if so it needed the brake adjuster turned tighter to get more of the shoe length against the drum, and let the shoes wear in.

Out of round would cause the brakes to unevenly grab and let up over and over, resulting in a bouncy feel of the brake pedal.

I misstated the problem. The pedal doesn’t really bounce.
When I am under the bus adjusting the shoes as I rotate the wheel you can feel sections of heavy drag and other sections of no drag at all.
I tried to find a happy medium with the adjuster, with slight drag, after a drive the wheel gets really hot indicating dragging.
Adjust it for zero drag anywhere and the brakes seem ineffective.
My front shoes are even all around where I can move the adjuster slightly and it makes a big difference when the drum is perfectly round.

The rears have tight spots and loose spots.
I’ll report back a what the O’Reillys brake drum people find out.
I already dropped it off without measuring it.