I'll back up Dennis on this one.  The spring inside the wheel cylinder
is only on the ATE/FAG/FTE cylinders outa Europe these days.  Brazil
TRW/Varga and the Far Eastern variety don't have the internal springs.
 This spring is absolutely necessary for the Vanagon rear brakes to
work properly and its for this reason I tell the sales guys at
Airhead/VWG to only sell the OE cylinders for a Vanagon application.

The TRW/Varga variety is OK for the 72-79 Bay Widnow because of the
slightly different design in the shoe operation.  Of course, I stay
away from the Far Eastern variety because of fluid leakage and poor
metal line connection seating.  I speak from personal experience.

My nickel's worth....
-- 
Jim Thompson
84 GL 1.9 "Gloria"
84 Westfalia 2.1 "Ole Putt"
72 411 Station Wagon "Pug"
75 914 1.8 "Nancy"
Full Timing Since March 1999
oldvolkshome@gmail.com
http://www.oldvolkshome.com
***********************************
On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 10:19 PM, Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@hotmail.com> wrote:
> The Vanagon rear brakes are really the same set up form the Bay Window
> busses. The major differences are the lower shoe rests are fixed instead of
> adjustable and they are now self-adjusting with the take up on the same side
> as the cylinder. The "original" cylinders had an internal spring the pushed
> the pistons out against the shoes to avoid the "suck back" that would occur
> creating a gap between the pistons and the shoes making for that "need to
> pump" the pedal feeling. �Since the cylinders are otherwise the as the early
> bus most replacements including some dealer supplied parts are missing that
> spring. So far only the ATE cylinders have it.
>
> And yes it makes a difference.
>
> Dennis