TheSamba.com :: View topic - Rejuvenate or Replace: A Braking Quandry.

Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:21 pm

The brakes (or "breaks" as some spell it :roll: ) on my panel are BAD (spongy and distant-feeling), but the shoes look as if they have good pad life on them. I also have not found a leak in the brake lines. The bus received a new master cyl and front calipers and then sat for 2 years with the current fluid in the system (according to PO, and I believe him). My question is should I flush and fill the system with fluid and see if it cures the sponginess, or should I invest in new pads, calipers, master cyl, and soft lines right off the bat? Do lines and parts corrode from just sitting?
Thanks for your time.

P.S. I consulted the Bentley and my magic 8 ball before posting this question and the "answer [was] not clear," so I hope it is an appropriately non-ignorant query to post here.

Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:26 pm

calipers? what are they ;) I though you used those to measure things.

what type of brake system are you running? what type of fluid? silicone brake fluid is twice as compressable as normal brake fluid. shoes that are not making full contact with the drums due to different arcs will also cause a little spongieness.

Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:26 pm

Did you replace your hoses, sometimes they can give the spongey feeling.

Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:28 pm

I sometimes get that not-so-spungy feeling...

Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:30 pm

OG Velvet wrote: I sometimes get that not-so-spungy feeling...

You should try Irish Spring, to cure that spunky-funky-feeling :D

Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:32 pm

Look what Lind started, let in a little levity and it's contageous. Now everyone is yanky their wanky without spanky.

Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:34 pm

spookymulder wrote: Look what Lind started, let in a little levity and it's contageous. Now everyone is yanky their wanky without spanky.

LMAO!!! :lol:

Fri Feb 20, 2004 2:47 pm

Lind wrote: calipers? what are they ;) I though you used those to measure things.

what type of brake system are you running? what type of fluid? silicone brake fluid is twice as compressable as normal brake fluid. shoes that are not making full contact with the drums due to different arcs will also cause a little spongieness.

:lol: calipers=wheel cylinders...sorry! That's my Eurovan brake parts vocabulary slipping in there!

Its a stock set up in front (1960), but someone installed a big nut tranny in the rear. Actually, I have not measured the width of the front shoes, so I cannot be certain that the front drums are not a later replacement as well.

Fluid type is unknown. The bus has not been on the road in years--the PO didn't have it running, he just started with the brakes and was sidetracked by other projects. I have had the bus for almost a year, but just recently finished the required metal work and got it running.

Mulder-- The hoses look recent (looks as if the PO put them in when he did the master cyl), but they have been sitting. Do these lines corrode from sitting with "new" fluid in them?

My instinct is to completely flush and fill the system, adjust the shoes and go from there. HOWEVER, I wanted to post this here first to see if my instinct is sound or if it is retarded and will end up killing my "too-cheap-to-buy-brake-parts" self.

Thanks again for your time.

Fri Feb 20, 2004 3:49 pm

flushing the system and a brake ajust is a half hour job, go for that and see what happens :D