wen coming home from the cruise yesterday i noticed the brakes were vibrating through the peddle when i was braking at speed on the freeway. this is on my new pan so first time ive driven it, wat could be the problem? brakes need adjusting? bleeding? on a swing axle oval pan with drums... thanks
sam

This used to happen in my 63 beetle when braking at speed (eg on freeway) - used to shudder like mad but when braking at normal 60kmh speeds it was okay. Ended up being warped drums. Replaced the rears with new units which helped a lot. Be careful you gradually torque the wheel bolts up alternate (not just go round one after the other clockwise etc). This too can cause pulsing through the pedal.

Just some ideas.

thanks thats similar to wat anthiron has just told me (has the same prob). any idea on wat new drums go for these days?

B 4 you go buying new ones.... loosen off all the wheel nuts and do up to the correct tension which is around 25 Ft Lbs check the book.
Over tightening of the wheels bolts tends to WARP the brake drums and causes shuddering.

Early 5 stud drums bend n twist easy

thanks dave will do

Hi

Are you running 4 or 5 stud on this pan, I thought that you had 4 stud? 4 studs usually only get shudder if the discs are warped.

1302Steve

that was his old pan as far as i know he has a swing axle wide 5 stud pan under it now.

If you find adjusting the wheel stud torque doesn't help, you can have the drums machined assuming there is still enough thickness left in them. This is much cheaper than new drums and most brake shops will do it.

as purple t3 said, if you got the material left on the drums get em machined back to round, much cheaper......go to a regular brakeshop for it.

yep cool ill take it to the brake shop if the stud thing doesnt fix it. steve as i was saying, its now on an oval swing axle pan with drums, thanks for ur help guys, let u know how it goes

oh and if you machine them or get new ones run new brake pads as well!

RE tensioning the wheel nuts will take a little time for the warping to come out. Dont machine them and them tighten the wheel nuts with a rattle gun other wise your back where you started.

I have found the shuddering usually goes away in a few days.

All this advise and no one has touched the cure,

with early t1 drums the machining should be done with the road wheel attached,(nuts torqued) as any good vw shop would know.

Then mark the road wheel and drum just in case you need to separate the two.

Any time brake shoes are fitted, the shoes should be radius ground to match the drum diameter they are being fitted to.

Brake shoes only come radiused assuming the smallest diameter drum size.

Even if the drums are not machined, any time new shoes are fitted they should be radiused.

This ensures complete pad contact and prevents overheating and glazing of the pad material.

This job takes minutes and costs a few bucks.

Hi

I didnt read your post properly and then when I did my connection died. I have found that if you tension every 2nd nut until all are tight, that helps. You could also try to find out which wheel is the culprit and then try rotaing the wheel on the drum. Also widened wheels that have been cutdown to 14 inch or off road style wheels will distort the drums if they are slighty out of shape as they dont flex to shape of the drum.

1302Steve

is it dangerous in anyway? it worried me that i was going to lose my brakes wen i was out there on the highway.

Hi

You might not actually loose your brakes, but their effectivnes will reduced which could be the difference between having a prang or not and in the long term the pulsing will damage components.

1302Steve

yeah dangerous to a degree that your brakes wont be as effective and it may vibrate your steering, but safe enough if you dont speed and keep at a distance, but yeah long term damage will occur.......

Don't hit kerbs really hard, it can warp drums so much that machining isn't enough :blush