Hi again all,

Anyone out there upgraded the rear drum brakes of their beetle? The budget doesn't allow for the expense of rear disc brakes so I was just wondering if there's any other cheap alternative out there. Have this weird feeling I read somewhere about maybe type 4 drums being an almost bolt-on affair?

You need to get 72 or 73 Type 3 rear brakes and hubs and backing plates

They will fit with a little maching of the hub

When you do this you end up with 4 stud rear and 5 stud fronts so you have to consider an adaptor plate as well.

Do the fronts first (maybe you have already?) then do what VW54 suggested

Thanks for that. I'lll start the search for the type 3 parts.

I'm planning a disc brake conversion for the front so I'll just get the 4 stud conversion kit which should make things nice and easy.

Ahhh... second thoughts: by the time you have bought front disc kit, found T3 drums and changed the gearbox (which will be necessary so your track matches front and rear) it would be easier and cheaper to do a floorpan/chassis swap to a 1968-70 Beetle 1500 pan




[ Edited on 11-10-2005 by VWCOOL ]

Hi Peoples

I just did the Type 3 rear brake transferr.

I have a 73 beetle so it had the long shafts so I did not have to machine the drums.

I used everything from the backing plate out. Wheels cyd everything. You will need to get new caskets where the backing plate bolts on the car.

Before you machine the drums just see if you have the long ones,I did this by putting the drum from the Type 3 on the beetle brakes just to make sure the drums fit.

it was a easy job and the brake do make a difference as mine is a BAJA.

Marc

The guy I bought the car off said something about having to replace the axles due to installing a kombi gearbox? He used to commute 100kms a day from Bathurst to Orange.

This kind of procedure ring any bells to anyone?

Does the swap to type 3 at the rear change the track at the back at all? The swap to disc brakes on the front widens the track i'm assuming?

Depends on which conversion you use....we used a "Sherman "one and from memory it increased the track by about 13mm each side. Others I have seen advertised have a standard track. The "Sherman " conversion uses Mazda single piston calipers, it works ok but if doing it again I'd opt for VW calipers which are dual piston.

Thanks heaps guys.

Unless some type 3 brakes present themselves it looks like i'll try and find some front discs which don't affect the track and leave it at that.

It's tops being able to talk to some people who've been thru this stuff!

I did a type 1 disc front and type 3 rear conversion to my '66 many years back. Yes because the '66 has shorter rear axel splines you do need to machine 15mm from the inside of the hub. Any competant machine shop with a lathe can handle this.

The advantage of the shorter axels is that you can run 7" rear tyres/rims under stock guards with no interference. I ran 15x7" rear porsche fuchs on type 3 rear drums for many years and they worked great. All that wasn needed was to drill and tap the 5x130mm porsche bolt pattern.

The front disc conversion to type 1 dual piston calipers was a little more complicated as it used a caliper conversion plate and then rotors were machined to accept '66 bearings so it then became a bolt on conversion. I think I sold it to tassupervee?