Itinerant Air-Cooled

my project bus, a 79 Transporter:

In the beginning there were no brake lights, and there still aren't

I jumpered the black and black/red wires at the switch and confirmed that there was light at the brake lights.

Replaced both switches, but the replacement switches at the FLAPS are absolute garbage.
One of them made the brake light come on and stay on all the time, then started leaking out of it's electrical connections.
Pulled them both and put the originals back in. The ones I took out have the VW part number stamped on them and the little VW logo as well. They are probably OK. Hard to say.


I figured a bleed and brake adjustment would be a good place to start (over) - then I can get back to the lights.

The drivers side top bleeder screw is seemingly rusted to the caliper. Hit it with PB blaster, tried again, tried a vice grips, still nada. Ill try hitting it with PB every day for a little while and then try it earlier in the week next week.

Went to the passenger side caliper - WTF is that? Oh, it's the top bleeder valve broken off in the caliper, flush with the caliper. Awesome. I can't bleed the brakes until I find a way to back this broken bleeder valve out and then find/install a replacement.

The stupid thing is that the brakes seem to work great on this bus, even after I likely introduced a bunch of air in the system after replacing and re-replacing the brake switches.

So the new plan is: keep hitting all remaining bleeder valves with PB blaster. acquire replacement/s bleeder valve/s, and likely stock up on good brake fluid. I may as well change it all at this point. not sure if I should use my fancy blue stuff or not.


I need to be able to get out and put some miles on it, so I can then go get it smogged once ive tuned the mixture where it needs to be.
how's the LM-1 IAC rental program these days?

just buy new brake cylinders cuz if they are that rusted they are fubar'd good.

how can you tell if you have the Girling Vs the ATE calipers?

it looks like the replacement bleeder screws are specific to which model yours are.
without cleaning them up yet, it looks like they have the classic Audi 4 rings logo on the backside of them.

Edited to add: answered my own question. You can tell by looking at the number of tabs holding the pads in place.
4 is ATE and 6 is girling:

Get the better brake light switches here: http://www.airheadparts.com/vintage-vw- ... ght-switch

Probably won't break (brake?) the bank. Just make sure you keep the brake fluid reservoir filled as you change out the switches and then you won't need to bleed the brakes.

For the bleeder screw, you seem to be screwed. I have no advice but for now you could just leave it be. At some point, like when you have lotsa money, rather than fussing with the calipers you have, you can get very good replacements from Wolfsburg West. (http://www.wolfsburgwest.com/wolfsburg_ ... aliper.cfm) That is what I got for my 78 and I was very pleased with them. I got the new calipers with pads, etc because I'm lazy.

For troubleshooting on your lights, make sure you trace every inch of the wire to your tail lights to make sure there isn't a short. On my 78 I had a wire near the engine hatch brace that was worn through and touching the brace when the hatch was closed, thus grounding the circuit. Coated the wire and moved it away from the brace and all was good with the brake lights.

Good luck, Tim

satchmo wrote:
For the bleeder screw, you seem to be screwed. I have no advice but for now you could just leave it be.

Use the 11mm brake line fittings where they screw into the calipers or wheel cylinders as your bleeders. Same procedure as when your bleeder screws are working, just a bit messier as you need to really punch the brake pedal quickly when the fitting is cracked open during your procedure. Have a good absorptive terrycloth towel to catch/mop up fluid.
Colin

Amskeptic wrote:

satchmo wrote:
For the bleeder screw, you seem to be screwed. I have no advice but for now you could just leave it be.

Use the 11mm brake line fittings where they screw into the calipers or wheel cylinders as your bleeders. Same procedure as when your bleeder screws are working, just a bit messier as you need to really punch the brake pedal quickly when the fitting is cracked open during your procedure. Have a good absorptive terrycloth towel to catch/mop up fluid.
Colin

thank you for that. I do understand now what you mean by that, which glossed over me initially.

the brake lights work right now, once I dug in and really traced down what was happening with the lights on the passenger side. not sure why, but the drivers side lights weren't coming on until I fixed the passenger side wiring - then they both came on.

the B light on the dash is still dimly lit all the time, then brightly lit when I hit the brakes.
does that sound like a master cylinder issue?

airkooledchris wrote: drivers side lights weren't coming on until I fixed the passenger side wiring - then they both came on.

the B light on the dash is still dimly lit all the time, then brightly lit when I hit the brakes.
does that sound like a master cylinder issue?

Daisy-chained wiring.

No, not necessarily. Look at diagram. track down all voltage supply/ground paths to the lamp.
Colin

Amskeptic wrote:

airkooledchris wrote: drivers side lights weren't coming on until I fixed the passenger side wiring - then they both came on.

the B light on the dash is still dimly lit all the time, then brightly lit when I hit the brakes.
does that sound like a master cylinder issue?

Daisy-chained wiring.

No, not necessarily. Look at diagram. track down all voltage supply/ground paths to the lamp.
Colin

Thanks Colin, i'll do that. The brakes feel pretty good really, better than my blue bus and ive re-done all of the brakes on that one.

Last night I pulled the kick panels and glove box and instrument panel - then tracked down any loose wires and checked for bad connections/etc behind the fuse box. Outside of some silly wiring for the aftermarket tach and the now-missing radio, it really wasn't bad. The only disconnected wire I found was for the rear defroster where it comes from the passenger side door area and then to the switch.

The tach was getting it's power by wrapping the power wire around the fuse connection for fuse #10, which I swapped over to the accessories free spot on the back of #9. Someone had replaced fuses 11 and 12 with 16amp ones, which I switched back to 8's instead.

Everything still works the same as it did before, but it's nice to know where that all stands. I'll have to take a closer look at the brake specific ones soon, though i'll let this one slide for a bit while I keep tracking down my steering box and/or related component issues - as that issue I can feel from the drivers seat.