parking brake - *solved

[bigdog1962]

It's a 1965 vw convertible whose parking brake wouldn't engage despite being tightened down. After studying it awhile, looking at pictures and reading here, I decided to change the cables thinking they were stretched after about 54 years. So that's what I did today. However, it's still not engaging. I have new brake pads and cylinders (installed by someone else). Help me think through this:
1. It's not the cables. I replaced both of them and could barely get the nuts on the handle equalizer but I managed to. When lifting up on the parking brake, it moves the parking brake arm that is supposed to move the pads outward.
2. When I look at the crossbar, I thought maybe it's got too deep a recess. But in reading on line here, someone posted that the depth was 1.8 cm on the lever side which mine are. And the crossbars are installed correctly. I double checked it from another post with pictures.

I had already adjusted the brakes.
The fulcrum bar moves when the parking brake is engaged.
Not engaged

Engaged - (I could have pulled the handle up further)

And the other side:
Not engaged

Engaged

I manually moved the lever (quite a bit) and it does move the brake pads outward.

I'm thinking it has to be the wrong wheel cylinders installed because there is some space (the bar is not right up against the metal) between the crossbar and the brakes when it is not engaged. I'm thinking these brake cylinders are too long.

They are about 8.4 cm from the insert to insert. (Poor picture but you get the idea).

I don't have anything to reference the size of the cylinders by. One of them has 182 on it but I can't find that anywhere on the internet.

Any other thoughts?
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Oprn wrote: I'm getting to the age that any self propelled woman (no wheel chair or walker) looks HOT!! Oooo! look at that Babe! She made it from the dining room all the way to the TV room without help!! Hubba, hubba!!

[66brm]

Have you adjusted the brakes? Just throwing it out there. Other thing I've noticed is that one of the cross bars is upside down. Fully compressed I get about 72mm for t1 wheel cylinders and about 82mm for t3, perhaps there's a mismatch of parts going on
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Aust. RHD 66 Type 1
Aust. RHD 57 Type 1 Oval

[bigdog1962]

Already adjusted brakes prior to trying to set the parking brake.
The crossbars are correct - I used this post (Wayne1230cars reply) as a reference.
https://www.thesamba.com/vw/forum/viewtopic.php?t=541171&highlight=parking+brake
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Oprn wrote: I'm getting to the age that any self propelled woman (no wheel chair or walker) looks HOT!! Oooo! look at that Babe! She made it from the dining room all the way to the TV room without help!! Hubba, hubba!!

[vwoldbug]

Are the brake drums worn oversize.

[raycer60]

[bigdog1962]

vwoldbug - I don't believe they are worn but that's something I need to check.

Raycer- thanks for thoughts. I need to go back and look at the pistons and make sure they are fully compressed before checking the brake adjustment (at least that's what I think I need to do). There are two lengths of cables - one from jbugs and the other from Wolfsburg. I went with the Wolfsburg cable because it was shorter. It works fine - no trouble with the routing.

I'll keep thinking and working on it - it's not rocket science but it's got me scratching my head for something that should be so simple.
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Oprn wrote: I'm getting to the age that any self propelled woman (no wheel chair or walker) looks HOT!! Oooo! look at that Babe! She made it from the dining room all the way to the TV room without help!! Hubba, hubba!!

[mukluk]

It looks like you're getting good travel on the parking brake link and transfer bar. You shouldn't have to do anything with the slave cylinder pistons, the upper shoe return spring will pull them in as much as required. What you need to do is install the drums, adjust the brake shoes out until the drum cannot be moved and back the adjustment stars off 2-3 clicks, then operate the brakes several times to center up the shoes in the drum. Repeat the process as required until it no longer takes more than 2-3 clicks of adjustment to get the shoes back into full contact with the drums -- at this point each shoe should be backed off no more than 2-3 clicks and the shoes should drag slightly on the drum when turned. Once the shoes are adjusted you can adjust the parking brake cables so that the parking brake fully releases with the lever down and will hold the car in place with the lever pulled up five clicks.
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1960 Ragtop w/Semaphores "Inga"

[theblake]

Not sure if this is part of the problem, but it looks like you have two different wheel cylinders. Are they the same size?

[andk5591]

I dont remember the details and exactly which car, but I have had an issue with e-brake cable length before. I ended up using a different year cable...Sorry not much help - it had been a couple years ago and I have had more than a few cars through the shop.

The thing with these cars is that over the years you can have a real mix of stuff installed. Could even be related to your e-brake handle......
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D-Dubya Manx clone 1914. Ex wifes car.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Ex-wifes car.
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[TDCTDI]

[andk5591]

I didnt look at the pics closely. Yeah, I think you are 100% correct.
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D-Dubya Manx clone 1914. Ex wifes car.
Rosie 65 bug - My mostly stock daily driver.
Woodie 69 VW woodie (Hot VWs 7/12).
"John's car" 64 VW woodie - The first ever
Maxine 61 Cal-look bug - Ex-wifes car.
66 bug project - Real patina & Suby conversion
There's more, but not keeping them...

[bigdog1962]

A lot of good advice here. I'll go back to the drawing board and update my results. Thank you.
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Oprn wrote: I'm getting to the age that any self propelled woman (no wheel chair or walker) looks HOT!! Oooo! look at that Babe! She made it from the dining room all the way to the TV room without help!! Hubba, hubba!!

[bigdog1962]

I suspect what made the difference was properly adjusting the brakes. Granted, I haven't had much (I can't remember when I last adjusted any brakes and when I did, it was probably only once) experience adjusting brakes and what I read, didn't really help. I read Mukluk's explanation several times and got to thinking, I've never adjusted the brakes until they wouldn't turn. I had adjusted them until I heard some drag but that obviously wasn't near enough. Turns out, the adjustment screws needed to be a lot further out.

I also had to turn over two of the adjustment screws so that the fat part was at the bottom, as TDCTDI suggested.

I had already replaced the cable.

After this and a few other bumps along the way (replaced axle seal that started leaking) and adjusting the parking brake itself, I have a functional parking brake.

Thanks to all for your advice.
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Oprn wrote: I'm getting to the age that any self propelled woman (no wheel chair or walker) looks HOT!! Oooo! look at that Babe! She made it from the dining room all the way to the TV room without help!! Hubba, hubba!!