Club 80-90 Forums

I have a problem with my brakes.. Its an 81 T3 transporter.

My van broke down at an altitude of 14500 ft about see level and had to be towed to 4400 ft. Since most of the towing was downhill so the brakes were really under stress and at one point they gave up and the pedal hugged the floor! However I managed to control the vehicle with hand brake and gear braking and got out of the situation which could have been the reason for my death. And after some rest the brakes were working again but I chose not to rely on them.

Now after about a month my van is on the road again but the brakes are not to the mark. When I brake the van really pulls to the right as if there are no brakes on the left wheel. As far as I understand, when brakes over heat the overheated brake oil passes through the washers in the master cylinder, so by changing the master cylinder washer kit will the problem be fixed? And I also feel that when I apply pressure to the pedal it goes down the normal distance and then keeps going down very slowly from there on wards if the pressure is kept constant.

So is this a master cylinder issue or am I looking at something else? The brake calipers, rotors, pads, rear linings, slave cylinders were installed brand new about 400 kms before this incident.

Thanks.

the sinking pedal will be a leak or master cylinder fault .

your van from the pics is an early one so you should be running ealy twin piston calipers , notorious for seizing up!

were they rebuilt or new units?

change /rebuild the master cylinder and change the brake fluid as you probably boilde it which does it no good!

worth dropping the rear drums and checking all is good as you probably got them hot as well!

billy739 wrote:the sinking pedal will be a leak or master cylinder fault .

your van from the pics is an early one so you should be running ealy twin piston calipers , notorious for seizing up!

were they rebuilt or new units?

change /rebuild the master cylinder and change the brake fluid as you probably boilde it which does it no good!

worth dropping the rear drums and checking all is good as you probably got them hot as well!

The calipers were new old stock(NOS) and there were probably from a T2 as the hydraulic hose fitting was in the center at the back; not on the side like the ones that came out. But they work perfectly fine before this incident.

Will get the rear brakes checked too and replace brake oil.

I installed new brake pads and now after 1500 kms less than half are left. Now I plan to install pads from the Mercedes W115 as they are slightly longer with same width and fully cover the T3's rotors so technically that should give me more stopping power?

Sounds like brake-fade, which is usually caused by boiling the brake fluid. My advice would be to replace your brake fluid.

Getting the brake job done now, got new merc pads, new master cylinder kit installed made by an Australian company called PBR. And got the rear linings replaced and renewed brake oil. Let's see how it turns out now. There are no leaks in the system. I couldn't get the original linings so got the locally made ones. I do have a set of Vw genuine brake linings but those are from the late 80's when my father had a T3 in 89. So I have a question do brake linings have a shelf life? Can I use the ones I have or should I chuck them out?

Okay.. drove it home and it feels better and it doesn't pull anymore, I can feel the rear brakes working now! It doesn't stop too well because the pads and linings need to bed in.

When the master cylinder was taken out and disassembled by the parts shop guy (who is a vw veteran) he said that the seals have been installed in the wrong order previously (by my mechanic). And then he installed the new seals in and kinda struggled and got confused with the order of the last seals towards the circlip lock.

So I'm not sure if he did it the right was or not? Does some one have an exploded diagram/picture of a disassembled master cylinder? Any pictures on any website?

Will really appreciate the help!

Bump.

Please help!

I've asked for some help on a very popular American vanagon site, I think you will get some good feedback there... if not from here

...and so it came

http://shufti.files.wordpress.com/2011/10/brake.jpg" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

the image above should open in a separate window which can be zoomed

here's another from a catalogue



Alternate/OEM Part Number(s): 211698211, 251698201B, 251698201C

http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/x,carco ... ttype,1840" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I hope this helps

kevtherev wrote:I've asked for some help on a very popular American vanagon site, I think you will get some good feedback there... if not from here

Thanks for the help.. appreciate it! what American forum is it? Samba? I would like to join too.

I definitely don't have the right order of bigger seals towards the circlip!

If I reveal my sources I would have to kill you..

kevtherev wrote:If I reveal my sources I would have to kill you..

Lol... alright! thanks anyways!

Of course it was the samba... where else!
Now you'll be lured away from us ...for a big shiny forum, that has an enormous data base and a wealth of knowledgeable fellas.