Hi folks,

For about 18 months I’ve had squealing front brakes.  I had the brakes worked  on by a local shop in Williamstown VT.  the brakes seemed to work much better wit the new rotors and pads.  also one new caliper.  Still they began to squeak with a little use.

thanks to this list I learned that it was likely he had left off the anti squeal shims.  these turned out to be a bit hard to find.  i found the shims from Ken at Vanagain and also gathered other recommend items including a front caliper hardware kit.  
        I have a retired auto body and classic   car expert near me and he agreed to supervise me and we took a look at my front brakes.
 on the driver’s side there were no shims and also a broken spreader spring.  On the passenger side it was the older caliper and also had  missing anti squeal shims.

I put in the shims and decided not to use anti squeal spray as that was not mentioned in the Bentley.  so with the 4 shims installed and the new spreader spring  I set out for a 300 mile round trip to the Adirondack Mountains.  And, the brakes worked great and were silent for the first time following the original work.

i’ve met a few other folks with 85 vanagon’s and squeaky brakes.  it may be worth checking to see if those shims are missing.

Thanks to everyone who helped me identify the problem and coach me through the process.  It worked and I hope this helps any others with loud squeaky front brakes.

Eric Caron 
85 GL Auto Westfalia