Itinerant Air-Cooled

It's been a long time since I had a bug.. recently got a 76 super vert and am trying to remember if it's normal for the brakes to require quite a bit of effort to use. As in much more than my 79 bus. I know the bus has a brake booster. Thinking about putting in a disc kit on the front wheels. It stops ok but taking some getting used to. Pads are ok, no squeaks etc.

Am I just a wimp used to power brakes?

I would suggest that if you haven't already, remove the drums and inspect everything. Shoes (not pads per se), wheel cylinders, hardware, etc. Replace anything necessary, put it all back together and adjust them properly. I personally swear by the "tighten each star 'til you can't turn the wheel by hand and back 'em off three clicks" method. Then go drive it and see what you think. Since we're in a similar sitch as we both own a bus with a booster and a Beetle without I can't say I've ever felt the Beetle didn't have enough stopping power or required an unusual amount of foot force. I know disc kits are available, but I can't say I've ever felt the need for it. Put that money into the inevitable 'new top' fund.

My '73 Super didn't require much force. Sure, a bit more than a modern car but significantly less than our '70 bus without the power booster.

IFBwax wrote: Am I just a wimp?

Aw no, of course not. Here's what you do . . . find a little travelled road. At 30 mph, do a progressive stop that locks the wheels at the end. Do it. Press as hard as necessary. Your brakes' job description is, Stop The Wheels.
If your brakes can lock up the wheels, they have sufficient power.

On the way to their job description, there can be issues, like swerving, pulsing, and premature lock-up of one particular wheel, there can be leaks.

You only need to consider disk brakes if your driving style exceeds the capability of the drum brakes. That means, if you had come in here and said, "dang, I keep getting brake fade and the smell of burnt cookies when I come down off the canyons . . . " then disk brakes might be a good idea.

If you just find that a lot of pressure is required, then go do the above test to see if your brakes actually have the necessary power, then consider things like:
has the wrong master cylinder been installed? do I have a restricted (kinked) steel brake line? are my linings so badly contaminated with fluid or grease that they just can't lock up the wheels?
Colin

Brakes wouldn't lock up. Thanks for the test. My friend who I bought the car with said he went through the back brakes and adjusted them fairly tight but didn't look at the fronts yet since we were going to put in a disc kit. Anyone have any experience with disc kits?? Do they really help? I'll get back to you after we check the fronts.

i'd pull all 4 drums and look for glazing or contamination. doesn't take much to affect braking. i have cleaned contaminated shoes/pads with brake kleen and a wire brush. dry with compressed air.

IFBwax wrote:Do they really help?

They have more "stop" potential, but take more pedal pressure than drums unless you have power brakes because drum brakes have the shoes arranged so that when they rub the drum, they "unscrew" in a sense and wedge themselves even tighter to the drum. Disc brakes don't have that self-servo action, so the kit better include a proportioning valve to keep the rears from locking up when you get all that pedal pressure going hard enough to operate the disc fronts. That's why all the old detroit iron used drums all 'round until power boosted brakes became the norm.
(That is, I assume Beetles use a PV, too. I think they must, as other cars with disc front, drum rears do.)

IFBwax wrote:Anyone have any experience with disc kits?? Do they really help?

I've only driven one bug with a disk kit. It was hideously bad. There was practically no brake action until nearly the end of the pedal travel, and then a sudden grab. The calipers just didn't seem to have been matched to the car and master cylinder to provide balanced braking.

Even though this was a sample of one, I wouldn't be at all surprised if it was typical of aftermarket brake kits. And you would need to consider where to get replacement parts (rotors, pads) for a kit that might be off the market by the time you need to replace the pads.

I think some years of Ghias had disk brakes. If you could..., oh, wait, you have a Super Beetle, right? Never mind.

I think if you get the stock drum brakes sorted out, you will find that you have all the braking you need for that car.

Have fun with it.

I put disk brakes on my 74 Beetle and I love them. My stopping distance is shorter and wet weather stopping is improved too. I don't feel like it takes any more pedal pressure than the drum set up. My son and I are building a 72 Beetle for him to drive and the disk brake conversion is the first thing we will do.