Thanks Dick.
The low pedal is likely due to a shoe fine adjustment.
Before and during shoe adjustment I
pushed the brake pedal several times to center shoes.
This likely pumped up the wheel cylinders
allowing the wheel cylinder springs to keep the shoes out
during fine adjustment. i.e. the gap between shoes and drums
is big enough to cause an initial low pedal but not so big
that it actuates the adjuster lever.
Wheel cylinders are new ATE.
Master cylinder was replaced not that long ago.
I flush the hydraulics regularly.

In terms of my question, as an extreme example, if the shoes were
adjusted so far in that this caused the pedal to go to the floor,
would this hamper effectiveness of the calipers?

On 6/25/15, Dick Wong <sailingfc@dslextreme.com> wrote:

> My 'pump up" brake pedal ended up being a failing seal within the master
> cylinder.
>

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
> Neil N
> Sent: Thursday, June 25, 2015 8:14 PM
> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
> Subject: Low Brake Pedal, Caliper Piston Movement.

> .....
> i.e. does this [low pedal] negatively affect the calipers ability to sufficiently push
> the pads against the rotors?
>

--
Neil n

Blog: Vanagons, Westfalia, general <http://tubaneil.blogspot.ca>

1988 Westy Images <https://picasaweb.google.com/musomuso/New1988Westy>

1981 Westfalia "Jaco" Images, technical <http://tubaneil.googlepages.com/>

Vanagon-Bus VAG Gas Engine Swap Group <http://tinyurl.com/khalbay>