Itinerant Air-Cooled

79 Westy 2000cc. When installing new shoes and cylinder,I got a good look at the backing plate(s).
Unusable and unsafe. Got a new pair of OEVW plates from BusDepot. Really nice quality. The star adjuster part was spot welded onto the plates. However,the locating pin that sets between the two big retaining bolts at the bottom was not included. I have the pin from the old plate. Is this a critical item? Seems that those big bolts locate the assembly well enough and the pin is not really needed. Anyway, I will install the old pin. Is this some kind of safety feature? Bob L.

Well, the fellows in Germany who designed that brake system evidently thought it was necessary. They forgot to document their reasoning in any of their service literature
AFAICT. Please contact VW and ask them correct that oversight.

Just the other day, some chap on one of the VW forums posted a photo of his brake shoe that had crumpled under the stress of hard braking, right where it goes into the adjuster screw. Just goes to show the enormous forces that are being applied to that little block of metal. Makes me wonder if two bolts and a dowel are enough.

If I can get it out of the old assembly,I'll put it in. Think it's a part that is NLA.

Psucamper wrote:If I can get it out of the old assembly,I'll put it in. Think it's a part that is NLA.

That pin is an important part of locating the backing plate to the wheel bearing housing. It can be knocked out *before* you loosen the bolts. If your old backing plate is already off with the pin trapped in it, try to remove it without galling the sides of the pin or mushrooming the ends. Feel free to use anti-seize paste when you tap it into the new backing plate/wheel bearing housing.
Colin

Colin. Thanks for the reply. I didn't want to leave out what Mr. VW put in, so I used a punch + heat and removed the locating pin successfully. Yes, there was a little mushrooming but it cleaned up well and with a gob of anti-seize slipped in nicely.
Love the new OE backing plates....no rust!

Psucamper wrote:Colin. Thanks for the reply. I didn't want to leave out what Mr. VW put in, so I used a punch + heat and removed the locating pin successfully. Yes, there was a little mushrooming but it cleaned up well and with a gob of anti-seize slipped in nicely.
Love the new OE backing plates....no rust!

Let us know if you:

a) used a bead of sealing compound between the backing plate and the wheel bearing housing

b) hear any scraping when you rotate the drum

Colin 80* and sunny tomorrow

Colin. Indeed I did use sealing compound. It's dum-dum (that's what I call it). Comes in thin strips and is pliable and squeezable.
No scraping noise with the new OE backing plates.
Potential major horror.....e-brake cables MAY be frozen in the guide tubes!
If so,is there reasonable hope of cleaning them out before installing new?

Psucamper wrote:Colin. Indeed I did use sealing compound. It's dum-dum (that's what I call it). Comes in thin strips and is pliable and squeezable.
No scraping noise with the new OE backing plates.
Potential major horror.....e-brake cables MAY be frozen in the guide tubes!
If so,is there reasonable hope of cleaning them out before installing new?

Excellent on first two counts.
E brake cables are very unlikely to be frozen in tubes. They may be frozen in flexible cable sheaths between torsion tubes and backing plates.

a) remove e brake cable adjusting nuts from equalizer bar
b) remove e brake cable sheaths and spring-loaded cable ends from backing plate. (for fully assembled cars, that means removing the drum and rear shoes)
c) pull rearwards on the cable sheath end that was in the e-brake tube near the spot weld point at the torsion tube. You might need to twist and twist to get it out of the e-brake tube.
d) Once the sheath is free, you should have an easily removable cable through the steel tube. You may have to guide the threaded front end of the e-brake cable into the steel tube up front.

Commonly, you are only there because the cable has already broken. Then, you pull the threaded end forward the front bumper and the rear end towards the rear bumper, and hope all is accounted for.
Colin80*partlysunny

Colin. Thank you for the detailed instructions regarding the e-cable replacement. Job went as planned and was (for once) easy. Now to the other side and stars adjustment. Then a 4 wheel system bleed.