Club 80-90 Forums

I’m gutted. Only a few days to go till our first ever trip camping in the van and a week before we take her to the V Festival and disaster has struck during the brake change.

Disaster 1) My mates changing the rear drums and shoes on the drive for me and he thinks he’s somehow broken the clip on the back plate that the springs clip on just below cylinder. BUT he hasn’t, it turns out some W***** who had done some work on it before I owned it, had obviously broken the clip off the back plate then welded it to the cylinder. Now we have a clip welded to an old rear cylinder and a hole in the back plate. Nice!

Disaster 2) Whilst looking at the disaster and wondering if we will ever get the van on the road I notice a round lump of rust, metal and mud, just sitting on top of the trailing arm in the middle of the spring. On further inspection it turns out this lump of metal is the spring locater, which has snapped off the rear trailing arm – god only knows how long its been like this!!!!!!

I see Brickwerks sell a Trailing Arm repair section that welds onto the existing trailing arm, for £16 which was some relief, and rear back plates cost about £60 each from JK. How much work will it be to change both these bits and realistically do I have much chance of getting these 2 disasters sorted before next Friday and is this gonna cost me 2 arms and 2 legs to get it fixed?!?

How unsafe would it be safe to chisel off the clip from the cylinder and weld it to the new cylinder... Im thinking no way, and for the sake of £60 get a new plate!!

Someone give me some good news, or some drugs please!!!

I think Simon @ Brickwerks is on Holiday at the minute

It's probably 4-6 hours work to change it all and make it good and safe plus some prep time getting parts in and stripping the old ; source a fixed brake pipe for trailing arm too just in case, only a few quid in copper bit more from brickie if he sells them, he fits the good stuff.
Cost of someone who can weld and the rest you can probably do yourself now you've seen the numpty f it up, there must be a good mobile vw competant mechanic in London surely there's billions of you in the SE......someone ?

windysurfer wrote:I think Simon @ Brickwerks is on Holiday at the minute

Oooh noooo, so he is. Back 16th it says, Ok... so who thinks I will be able to order the part, and get it all done by next Thurday!!!?!

This is getting worse by the minute.

Aidan wrote:It's probably 4-6 hours work to change it all and make it good and safe plus some prep time getting parts in and stripping the old ; source a fixed brake pipe for trailing arm too just in case, only a few quid in copper bit more from brickie if he sells them, he fits the good stuff.
Cost of someone who can weld and the rest you can probably do yourself now you've seen the numpty f it up, there must be a good mobile vw competant mechanic in London surely there's billions of you in the SE......someone ?

I can get my father in law to do the welding me thinks. ...plus my mate might be able to get his garage to do the rest if they are not too busy. ...and I might get the parts in time to... Or maybe not.

I dont think anyone else does repair sections for trailing arms.
With your deadline you could always try and get a trailing arm off here or from a trader. I bet volksheaven have loads.

It might be worth giving Spannerboy a shout. He's not that far from you.

hi shortbloke

chill-out

hows aout you refurb old brake cylinder;
clean out, install new internals, pistons seals etc, then,
re-install old brake cylinder with clip attached?!

get the spring mounting stick-welded, 'bodged' and 'tacked' back onto
its centre at trailing arm to hold it while you go on hols,
its been knacked all this time, a tack-on should give you a bit of chill

this could get you there and back ok for less cash and panic

best rik

rikisha9 wrote:hi shortbloke

chill-out

hows aout you refurb old brake cylinder;
clean out, install new internals, pistons seals etc, then,
re-install old brake cylinder with clip attached?!

get the spring mounting stick-welded, 'bodged' and 'tacked' back onto
its centre at trailing arm to hold it while you go on hols,
its been knacked all this time, a tack-on should give you a bit of chill

this could get you there and back ok for less cash and panic

best rik

oooh I like the sound of that!!! Get it patched up for the weekend, and then when the parts and time are available, get it done properly. Yeeeees I like it a lot!!!! Do ya think it will be safe enough tho?????? As you say, if its been like it for x number of years but im a bit para about brakes etc?! Thats certainly given me a bit more of a positive outlook on things. Cheers rik!!

It may not be worthwhile you re-fitting the trailing arm as it may be rotten elsewhere.

I managed to get a very sound pair for £50 on ebay. A fluke maybe but a good blasting, repainting, removal of old and fitting of new bushes and they are as good as new. In fact one is now on the van after the MOT man poked a hole in my original.

Fortunately for me Simon told me the trailing arms where getting to the end of their lives so it inspired me to look for some 'just in case'

N/S one on ebay for £84.99

You will have to get the hub nut off to replace the backplate.
46mm socket big bar 6' pole and 17 stone.

ok, diaster report updated.

Turns out I need 2 trailing arms, 2 brake back plates, and will probably put new springs in while im there.

Prob gonna put some reconditioned trailing arms on and the rest new stuff - starting point now is to get a pressure washer underneath and get rid of all the mud n crap to find out if anything else is fecked!

Better start saving the pennies!!

I got my trailing arm from sincro spares I believe someone has taken over the business now.
or billy173 or someting on hear may have some.

matty o wrote:I got my trailing arm from sincro spares I believe someone has taken over the business now.
or billy173 or someting on hear may have some.

At the time how much did you pay if you dont mind me asking, and what condition was it in... PM me if u dont want to say on here?

Has anyone used the Brickwerks Trailing Arm Repair plates, any feed back on them?? Wont know till its cleaned up but if its just this bit thats snapped off/corroded are these SAFE enough to do the job or is it better to get a 2nd hand "original" trailing arm.

Maybe Simon can tell me more about his repair plates when he's back from Hols??