rear brake back plate

[ermie571]

Hi chaps and chapesses,

Need some advice.

Used a recommended garage locally to get the tracking and balancing sorted, and to check rear brakes etc etc.

All good on the steering front - advised cylinders were weeping very slightly, and shoes had another 6 months in them. Now its 6 months later, and I have bought the wheel cylinders (good quality ones as advised by Baxter on the wiki)

Spoke to the garage, vans going in on Friday, but the mechanic said that if he finds the rear brake backplates corroded they will need replacing as well. Looked on JK and they ar £50 each!!! GULP Now, I don't like being taken for a ride......but on the other hand I kinda trust what this guy has to say - he made a recommendation 6 months ago....I could have done the work myself in this time.

I DON'T want to do this myself. Not got the confidence to start messing with brakes and shoes and cylinders without someone guiding who knows what they are doing!!! So, its gotta go in and get them done (NOT quick fit by the way).

So, my question is....how badly corroded do these plates get (1990 van)? Can you tell by poking (!) them that they need doing? Or since the rest of the stuff is being done do I get these parts replaced too! And will the drums fit....or will I need new ones of them too....

Any advice, places to buy etc would be good.

Thanks
Emma

[Ian Hulley]

how badly corroded do these plates get (1990 van)? Can you tell by poking (!) them that they need doing?

They can be like new but they can be totally knackered, normally they go where the shoe retaining pins go through the plate and on the mounds where the shoes rub. Try having a gentle poke with a screwdriver before taking it in.

IIRC you have to remove the rear hub to swap the plates so it's a bigger job.

Ian.

[CovKid]

£121 for a steel pressing? Cripes, for that kind of money I'd make my own......

[ermie571]

Still available from vw too...same sort of price - £55 +vat each. But since they are still available, perhaps it isn't a part that many have replaced!

Wish I could make my own......

Em
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[Simon Baxter]

£121 for a steel pressing? Cripes, for that kind of money I'd make my own......

Off you pop.

[Simon Baxter]

They are generally knackered, I fit loads.
First place they go is around the adjuster hole making brake adjustments nigh on impossible.
The tag that holds the springs onto the back plate below the cylinders allways fall off.
They rot around centre hole also.
If you are feeling particularly miser like you can use some bay window ones from Mexico, even the genuine ones are not that amazing, there are holes missing and you will have to make a metal bracket to hold aforementioned springs to the back plate.
All in all, by the time you have dicked about with them you may have well have just bought the right thing that will bolt on and do the job straight off, and they will last a million times better than the thinner South American ones.
personally I don't think for a really well pressed, galvanised thick piece of metal they are that expensive especially when they do what they are doing.
Your brakes, up to you.

[Ian Hulley]

personally I don't think for a really well pressed, galvanised thick piece of metal they are that expensive especially when they do what they are doing.
Your brakes, up to you.

Agreed 100%

Ian

[CycloneMike]

Before


After


The old one doesn't look that bad in the picture but it was paper thin compared to the replacement.
The back plate takes the brunt of the braking force.
Seamed daft not changing the back plate as everything else was shot, but its an easy job when everything else is in bits.

[ermie571]

They are generally knackered, I fit loads.
First place they go is around the adjuster hole making brake adjustments nigh on impossible.
The tag that holds the springs onto the back plate below the cylinders allways fall off.
They rot around centre hole also.
If you are feeling particularly miser like you can use some bay window ones from Mexico, even the genuine ones are not that amazing, there are holes missing and you will have to make a metal bracket to hold aforementioned springs to the back plate.
All in all, by the time you have dicked about with them you may have well have just bought the right thing that will bolt on and do the job straight off, and they will last a million times better than the thinner South American ones.
personally I don't think for a really well pressed, galvanised thick piece of metal they are that expensive especially when they do what they are doing.
Your brakes, up to you.

Simon,
that is just the advice I was looking for, and cyclone Mike, thanks for the pictures. Simon, I wasn't trying to bve miser like - In fact I said I was happy to replace them!! Its just that I knew nowt about that part, and I always worry that garages, esp when times are hard, will replace what don't need replacing. I kind of resent the implication that I wouldn't do it just coz they are pricey. Looks like I will be ordering a set to fit while its all in pieces then!

Em
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E D I T: Apology - Simon, a little birdie has whispered that I have taken what you said the wrong way! I must have got out the bed the wrong side this morning, so sorry.

Em
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