Adjust Brake shoes?

[quarterwarrior]

I have not taken off the wheels yet, but looking at the Parts manual with the diagrams, i do not see how you can adjust the brake shoes? I put a new master cylinder in and that works, but the brakes work, but go to the floor. I was thinking that i need to adjust the shoes, and tighten them or are they self adjusting? Thanks for the help.

 

[mike_israel]

You may need to adjust the length of the rod that goes into the master cylinder. It's been a while, but I think it just screws in and out to adjust. Brake shoe adjustment is like most other cars, if you only did MC, you should not need to adjust those.

 

[quarterwarrior]

Ok thanks, the rod is pretty close to touching the master, so I think it is set correctly.

 

[strandweiss62]

There are two nuts on each backing plate to adjust brake shoes. But you have to look in the maintenance manual to turn them in the right direction.

 

[quarterwarrior]

ok thanks for the help.

 

[Steve]

I just replaced a master cylinder and the push rod was too long with the new MC. There is a fork to adjust for the differences in master cylinders but it requires taking the fire wall panel out. It sounds like that could be your problem. To tighten your brake shoes, turn the adjustment nut clockwise. Good luck.

 

[LSolheim]

I just replaced a master cylinder and the push rod was too long with the new MC. There is a fork to adjust for the differences in master cylinders but it requires taking the fire wall panel out. It sounds like that could be your problem. To tighten your brake shoes, turn the adjustment nut clockwise. Good luck.

Remember, Steve, if you used the VW master cylinder, although it appears identical to Amphicar OEM, the taper within the plunger does not match the external taper of the Amphicar push rod. Due to price & availability I once actually put my old Amphi plunger into a new VW cylinder to avoid the need to re (& mis-) taper the Amphicar pushrod

 

[quarterwarrior]

thanks for your help. I adjusted the brakes as shown in the repair manual, and they are much better after replacing the MC too.

 

[strandweiss62]

To tighten your brake shoes, turn the adjustment nut clockwise.

No, never do so. Do it as shown in the manual.

 

[Wyofloater]

Replaced master with VW unit. Had to back of all the way to get pedal.

 

[SNOWBIRD]

A pic of Adjuster on rear of rear brakes.Please if you use a VW master DO NOT WRECK the rod by grinding it down. use proper piston in Master!

 

[Wyofloater]

Snowbird I did not change or modify mine. I just backed it fully. What do you mean by proper piston? Thanks for all your help!

 

[Ken Chambers]

Here's a drawing for the push rod I fabricated when using the VW bus dual master cylinder (ATE 211 611 021Q). The tip fits into the piston socket in the dual master cylinder and allows for some side to side movement.

 

[Ken Chambers]

Hum, PDF drawing didn't seem to work. Here it is in JPG format.