'A hard van is good to find!'

[bazzamon]

Is it possible to have a good hard brake pedal on a 84 1.9l auto? I have recently replaced nearly everything on this one & the pedal is still squishy. I didnt change the booster but everything else is changed including the soft & hard pipe lines. And definetely no air in the lines The brakes were totally shit before the work was done but at least they pull up straight now! Bazza

[bucko]

My 84 has a firm pedal.

Might be that last, non replaced booster that is at fault.
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Current VW drives: 1984 Westfalia

Past VW drives: 1967 Beetle, 1973 Beetle, 1977 Bus, 1971 Military Type 181

[foodeater]

You could replace the rubber lines with braided stainless lines. That could help with pedal feel.
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89 Bluestar-2.5 Subaru Powered-RIP
'84 Westy Tiico-daily driver-sold
'82 Caddy diesel-sold
'87 Vanagon Syncro-RIP
'81 diesel rabbit-sold
'82 Vanagon auto-RIP

[Alan Brase]

Do you mean a soft pedal or low pedal?
Soft pedal is caused by air in the lines. Plain and simple.
Low pedal is cause by the rear bakes not being adjusted up enough. Yeah, the auto adjusters should take it up, but VERY slowly. These have tiny teeth on them, about a quarter of the pitch of the old manual adjusters.
Yours probably need to be adjusted tighter.
The booster should have nothing to do with the pedal height. Furthermore, I've only seen 1 bad booster in my whole life.
Al
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Al Brase
Projects: 67 sunroof bug, 67 Porsche 912 Targa, 70 Westy
Dec 1955 Single Cab pickup WANT 15" BUS RIMS dated 8/55, thru 12/55
To New owners: 1969 doublecab, 1971 Dormobile
Vanagons:
80 P27 Westy JUL 1979, 3rd oldest known US
83 1.6TD Vanagon, 87 Wolfie Westy daily driver, swap meet home

[Christopher Schimke]

One other thing that can cause a soft/long pedal is severely worn rear drums. Dogpilot discovered this to be true. A new set of drum and the soft pedal was gone.

Drum brake systems inherently have a large amount of flex in them even when they are in as-new condition. The braking system is designed to compensate for this flex but as the drums wear, they become thinner eventually resulting in increased flex which equates to a softer pedal and increased pedal travel.
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[bazzamon]

Thanks for the suggestions. The local brake guy is going to 'pressure bleed' the system on Saturday. So we'll see what the outcome will be....

[brooklynvanagon]

Assumption here>>>>

After "nearly everything" is replaced, the brakes are already bled.

Why don't you go ahead an list what's been done. More info always helps.

[captainpartytime]

After fighting with this same issue (replacing everything except brake booster and drums), I took Dogpilots advice and replaced my drums. My pedal has been firm on my '89 auto ever since.
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-Kerry

1982 turbo diesel Westfalia