No rear Brakes!!

[vwmonkeyboy]

Hi Folks,

Just wondered if anyone could point me in the right direction with regards to finding out whats wrong with my rear brakes. There seems to be excessive travel in the brake pedal so I have checked both brakes and have adjusted them right up and then slackened them off a couple of turns but to no avail(I have also cleaned them out and made sure everything is moving freely). The wheels can be turned and with the brake pedal hard down it seems to have no braking effect at all. I was planning on replacing the brake shoes anyway but need to sort this issue out first otherwise the former is pointless. The front brakes are working fine.
The bus is a 1988 E 1.9 watercooled.
Any help/advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks,
Glenn

[Hacksawbob]

they may need bleeding

[Plasticman]

Hi
mike

[vwmonkeyboy]

Thanks, will try that tommorrow and see how I go.

[kevtherev]

hello and welcome

[vwmonkeyboy]

Hello as well and thanks for the welcome.

Glenn.

[phil_b]

Hi,

With the drums off have you checked if the rear brake cylinders move when the pedal is pressed, do it slowly so as not to pop them out fully. If no movemenet it could be a number of things, assuming you dont have a leak in the rear brake pipe circuit, which should be obvious.

Both cyclinders seized, probably unlikely to be both,

Rear brake pressure regulator faulty

Fault in master cyclinder

If you open one of the rear bleed valves whilst an assistant presses hard on the brake pedal and you get a powerful jet of fluid (use a tube into a jar) you can probabaly rule out the second and third above.

Hope this helps.. Phil

[Ian Hulley]

Might I point out that if you don't know exactly what you're doing brakes anr NOT the thing to be learning on If in any doubt what-so-ever have them done by a professional.

Welcome to the club btw

[vwmonkeyboy]

Thanks for the replies, I have worked quite a bit on previous cars owned including working on replacing brake parts but it was more a point in the right direction as to where to start, instead of just replacing things willy nilly as such and not solving the initial problem. To let you know I decided to edge my bets and replace the master cylinder and while I was at it I also fitted two new rear wheel cylinders. Attempted to drain all old fluid out of the system (rear done ok but one of the bleed nipples sheared off the front calipers!), and to be honest the condition of both front calipers was a bit iffy so I also replaced both of these. Borrowed an eezi bleed kit off a friend (this seemed to make the process of bleeding very straight forward) and bled the system. All brakes are now functioning and the pedal feels alot firmer. As I said thanks for the help and advice.

Glenn