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Subject:Vanagon Rear Brakes
From:Terry Kay
Date:Sun, 15 Apr 2001 15:58:42 -0500

Hey all,
I need technical advise, or at least a direction to explore a L/H rear
brake problem I've been having.

When I got the Van, (2 years ago) it always loped, when applying the
brakes, like a front rotor was warped.
I replaced the front rotors, pads, and inner and outer bearings.

Still had the problem, so I then replaced the back drums and shoes, and
hardware kits.

The problem remains---
Now here's what's  bizarre---
the leading shoe on the back brakes is the long one, and the short shoe
is the trailing shoe.

I looked at the bentley, and I examined the rear brake set-up prior to
replacing the original shoes.

The parking brake actuator arm is riveted to the short shoe, and there
is no way, it could be the leading shoe.

I never have seen anything like this, in 36 years of working on one kind
of car or another.

The van when driven when the brakes are cold are OK.
But get them warmed up a little and the right rear of the van sounds
like the wheel wants to blow off.( Thump, Thump, Thump) and  I can feel
the high spot (or low) especially just prior to coming to a dead stop.

And I did, prior to installing the rotors and drums have the turned to
make sure they were round.

I took off the back wheels yesterday, and the only thing I found was the
R/H rear wheel adjuster, doesn't seem to be adjusting the brake
properly, everything else was correct, and functioning.

Any ideas?

And what about the short shoe to the
rear?

Is this correct ??

Other than this, everything is just "Ducky"

Later,

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Terry 85 GL