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My Notch is stuck...
Petey - February 2nd, 2014 at 09:43 AM

Hi all,

I have this notch project that I'd left for a few years (in a garage) and I just went to get things moving on it the other day but its totally stuck... Looks like the brakes have somehow seized on. I've never messed with brakes myself before so I really son't know what to look for but I can tell you the handbrake is definitely off :)
Could anyone point me in the right direction here, it'd be great to get the project moving again. (literally)

Thanks,
Pete

Beastieboy - February 2nd, 2014 at 09:51 AM

same thing happened to me a couple of weeks ago... check the star adjusters on the brakes.
I opened mine up and then was able to roll. Maybe they expanded in the heat or something....

Petey - February 2nd, 2014 at 10:11 AM

Thanks dude!,
I've never adjusted them before is it a relatively straight forward process?

Beastieboy - February 2nd, 2014 at 11:15 AM

Yeh, just guessing that's what's happened as it happened to me.
Only takes a couple of mins. Jack the car up, put on stands, get a flat head screwdriver and move the adjusting stars up or down to tighten or loosen them.
If you jack the car, handbrake is off and can't move your rear wheels, i'm guessing that's the problem.
Let us know how you get on. :)

vlad01 - February 2nd, 2014 at 03:06 PM

I had this happen heaps of times when left for a while.
the rear shoes literally rust to the drums.

Chock up the wheels as you will need to have the hand brake off while jacking the car up.

jack up the rear, get a soft mallet and give the backing plates a good old thump all the way around. That will shear the shoes off the surface of the drum and you are good to go. Repeat as necessary.

Petey - February 2nd, 2014 at 03:11 PM

Thanks Vlad, I'll check it out!

vwo60 - February 2nd, 2014 at 08:46 PM

Never park your car with the hand brake on, guaranteed to lock up the rear wheels

vlad01 - February 3rd, 2014 at 08:04 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by vwo60
Never park your car with the hand brake on, guaranteed to lock up the rear wheels


lol that is what they are for. But unfortunately they always lock on on the VWs. Never had this problem on any other car, just VWs for some reason.

Had it happen on fords but thats due to an existing faulty handbrake mechanism built into the caliper. Basically they lock on as soon as you use the handbrake, not due to sitting there.

mackaymanx - February 3rd, 2014 at 08:23 AM

Had this happen with my XM ford, the clutch can do the same thing too.

bajachris88 - February 3rd, 2014 at 12:25 PM

WHen the baja sits for a while, particularly after rain you drive forward and hear this big 'clutch' where the drums finally let go after mildly rusting on. At least with the handbrake, its only 1 shoe out of the pair that would be stuck to the drum.

Maybe just drive it out lol.

vlad01 - February 3rd, 2014 at 01:14 PM

when mine got stuck, I tried for 20 min to rev and side step the clutch repeatably. Only managed to free one wheel like that but was burning my clutch doing it.

It was that day I worked out the mallet on the backing plate method.

bajachris88 - February 3rd, 2014 at 02:02 PM

Need the torque of a 3 rib kombi box :D

Petey - February 3rd, 2014 at 02:58 PM

I'd give that a try but, There's no engine in there... :)

MY68VW - February 6th, 2014 at 10:58 AM

lol