Hanbrake Adjustment Beetle

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No More Landy
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Hanbrake Adjustment Beetle

Post by No More Landy »

Hi Guys

Long time no post - my Daughter's beetle has been absolutely faultless daily driver for many months since I have had to look at it.


Last time I adjusted her handbrakje cable to the maximum of the thread, but it is not holding on any sort of hill any longer.

I have adjusted all the shoes close as possile to the drums but there is too much cable and no more thread. Do I just put a thin piece of pipe over the cable ends to give more travel for the tensioner nuts at the lever, or can there be another way of getting it correct ?

I am not sure if all handbrake cables come supplied the correct lenght or this one is maybe a poor copy, no idea of the history of the cable.

Any pointers welcome.


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Re: Hanbrake Adjustment Beetle

Post by No More Landy »

I took one side drum off to see where the problem could be and it seems there is a lot of movement on the Brake lever attached to the rearward shoe before the "spreader bar " starts pushing the opposite shoe away.
Can both the shoe lever and the bar get so worn from extended use that the distance between the bar reduces to the point that the brake becomes ineffective ?

Do I need to change brake shoes and the spreader bar or can I just put a spot of welding on both and use a grinder to dress up ?

P.S Poor quality pics due to stuffed Cell Camera
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Re: Hanbrake Adjustment Beetle

Post by retrovan »

Just make sure you have the bar the right way round, or you will not have good hand brake.

If it is a STD cable it should adjust to accommodate the life of the shoes, but if its a after market cable, they could of made it too long, then just fit a bigger nut over the thread followed by the nut so long.

This will work

Herman
1952 Split Beetle 1835cc
1968 Fastback 2Lt.type4
1972 Low Light Bay Panel Van 2Lt type 4
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Re: Hanbrake Adjustment Beetle

Post by No More Landy »

Slacked off the brake cables and re-adjusted the shoes and then reset the cable tension and seems better.

Will take her for a test tomorrow am.
1971 Beetle
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