My 1982 Westfalia's brakes have always traveled about 1/3 to 1/2 down
before feeling meaty, but they work perfectly well (30k of driving over
mountains, etc.). They've been bled a number of times, and had shoes
replaced, etc.  Do other people's brakes actuate higher up on the pedal
swing?

Developing business and guiding change since 1996,

G. Matthew Bulley
Bulley-Hewlett
Marketing & Communications
Business: www.bulley-hewlett.com
AIM = IExplain4u
Phone: +1.919.658.1278

-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM] On Behalf
Of Myron Lind
Sent: Tuesday, September 17, 2002 8:37 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: brakes breaks

Hey brake gurus,

I have a bit of a problem. Pedal pushes about half way down, then feels
like
it hits something hard, at that point the brakes work very nicely. I
thought
it was bad master cylinder (supposed to be two stages or such), swapped
in a
supposed-to-be-good one and the problems persists. Checked the rear
wheel
cylinders, they appear ok, no sign of the fronts leaking, I don't think
I am
loosing fluid. I can't seem to stop getting air out as I bleed (I've
done
this just fine a number of times before), the rear brakes are adjusted
nice
and close to the drum. Vacuum canister is working nicely best I can
tell--it
maintains vacuum for a pedal pump or two after I shut the van off.

Did I stick another bad master cylinder in or is there something else I
should be looking at?? Or is my 9 year old truly not strong enough to
pump
them up as I bleed them?

Thanks for any advice

Myron Lind
82 Diesel getting mechanical TDI (getting it quite slowly, in the
tradition
of the van)
83 Westy