I just had disc brakes put on the front of my 79 Volkswagen which one time a Super Beetle. My mechanic thinks that 4 to 5 inches of free play is okay. Does anybody Out there concur. I don’t like that much free play.. I had a 1955 Volkswagen and I could adjust the FreePlay by a star that you would turn to the right desirable play..
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Nope nope nope! Sounds like he didn't change out the master cylinder for one intended for front disk brakes.
Get a new mechanic he is clueless... brakes are brakes. As Lane said wrong master cylinder ( needs to be larger bore specific for disc brakes. Possible other issues are Left and right calipers are reversed and bleeders are not on top, air in lines, air in lines. Check pedal rod to master cylinder clearance.
Agree with Al. And Lane. There should be very little pedal movement before brake actuation, an inch maximum.
There is a 20.5mm(or is it 20.6?) master cylinder specifically for 4 wheel disc brakes. If it's only front discs, the later Karmann Ghia MC will work fine, just as it did in all the Ghias and Beetles that came with front disc brakes. Most of the masters have the same part numbers, but the suffix letters at the end of the part number are different.
I just spoke to my friend Dennis(Vintage VW body shop) yesterday about mechanics. He had a customer who had a shop replace his carb three times. The "mechanic" removed the mechanical fuel pump, and put in an electric. The problem was 7 pounds of fuel pressure, fine for a Chevy with a four barrel, but not for a Solex that requires 1.5 pounds.
My friend Dennis put in a mechanical pump and a 4th new carb and charged the guy $225. Happy customer said "That's all?" and is still running fine a year later. General mechanic knowledge is fine, but sometimes special VW knowledge is needed that general mechanics simply won't have.
Yep, I put discs on the back of an Intermeccanica that had drums. It's a must to swap out the master cylinder to a large bore.
Jbugs has this on their kits "We recommend using a large bore master cylinder whenever installing rear disc brakes, regardless of whether or not you have front disc brakes."
Plus a whole new master cylinder is less than $50 and take only a couple minutes to install.
-=theron
