Front brake rebuild and the usual nightmare

[zoti]

I am doing the front brakes of my 88 Westfalia.

The plan was to remove the calipers and POR15 them with the caliper kit. put new rotors, bearings and seals and replace the brake hose.

Of course, being a Vanagon this thing is all kind of rusted and seized nuts and bolts.

Caliper came off easy. The bracket bolts had to be heated with my new toy the induction bolt heater. then they came off.

The hose came off easily on the caliper side but refused to turn and the nut of the hard brake line obviously stripped even though I used the correct line wrenches. I ended up cutting it off and putting a new nut on the end of the line doing a new bubble flare. This forced me to bend the line straight first then back to the correct shape.

The rotor was easy to remove. The bearings were actually good but I replaced them anyways.

The bleed screw on the caliper was already broken and refused to come out. nothing helped and I ended up drilling it but I made a mistake and drilled it too deep. I ended up getting a couple of used calipers and rebuilt those but I ask fixed that caliper with a bleed screw repair kit.

A job I was planing to do in a couple of days expecting issues turned into almost two weeks and I am only done with one side.

At least bleeding the air out of the caliper was easy. I just gravity bled it then the regular way pumping the pedal a couple of times.

[zoti]

[zoti]

[VicVan]

All that could go wrong did go wrong... It is frustrating sometimes. Nice pics.

What's on the caliper on this pic:

?
_________________
'90 Little Blue Truck, 2WD auto, FAS GenV 2.0 NA (AVH)

[djkeev]

[DuncanS]

[djkeev]

[campism]

I just got my '87 Westy back from having the front brakes done. First job I've farmed out since we got the van in '06. I'd ordered new pads and rotors in prep, and the bride suggested having our guy do the work so I could concentrate on finishing up the guest room/guest bath remodel. I was not thrilled about surrendering the brake job but we got finished while the van was gone and everyone who matters is happy now.
_________________
'87 Westy in Wolfram Grey Metallic

[bobbyblack]

POR15: yes, that is something to do... but, from how I read the instructions, you also paint over that within so many hours with another paint of some sort. POR15 isn't meant to be left as the final outer coating.

But, it looks good, and I like the photos, as I will be doing this exact thing to a new-to-me '86 with a blown hard line at the front passenger caliper. My rust might be as bad or worse than yours!

-bobby
_________________
'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[Ahwahnee]

[bobbyblack]

Ahh, there's a bit I missed. Nice kit.
_________________
'87 Westy 'Flossie','86 Westy 'R1','86 tintop GL - Subi2.2 'J2','83.5 stock tintop L 'ZoomBus','74 Karmann Ghia, '63 Notch

[VicVan]

[jlrftype7]

[9.5isCanadian]

Great pictures!
Thanks, this is on my list to do this winter.

I attempted to do it last year but ran into the same challenge with my hard line nuts.

Thanks for posting the part numbers too. That'll help big time.

Just received my new (a rebuild not actually "new") tranny and wanted to put some sort of coating on it. I'll have to read up on the Por products.

Owen
_________________
9 1/2 - missing a few pieces.

1987 Getaway Hightop
1980 Sunroof Vanagon
2018 BMW R Nine T
2012 Golf tdi

[zoti]

[zoti]

Took apart the second side. The hose came off easy on the caliper side and of course it is starting to strip on the other side. I plan to save time and just cut it like I did on the driver side.

[djkeev]

[Jake de Villiers]

[Sodo]

Hold on pardner it's pretty clear he's badmouthing "quote-professionals" and "so-called professionals".

Not bona-fide professionals.

But back to the OP.
I'm gonna take some of Jake's tough-love stance on this.
No pity for nightmares.
I suspect if not for a rusty Vanagon you would be wandering the streets looking for a nut to induct....
_________________


'90 Westy EJ25, 2Peloquins, 3knobs, pressure-oiled GT mainshaft, filtered, cooled gearbox
'87 Tintop w 47k 53k, '12 SmallCar EJ25, cooled filtered gearbox
....KTMs, GasGas, SPOT mtb

[Abscate]