26/05/09 Replacing Rear Shoes & Cylinders

My friend used the brake pads we had previously removed to order the correct parts for the camper, meanwhile we decided to move onto the back brakes until the parts for the front came through.

So we jacked up the camper and took off the left wheel and drum. On taking the drum off it was evident that the camper had stood idle for some years. The shoes and cylinder were engulfed in an intricate mass of spiders webs while both the shoes and cylinder were deeply pitted from rust.


After removing the drum

First we took off the operating spring, this can be seen as the long vertical spring in the picture above, using pliers to carefully unhook it. The next things removed were the brake shoe steady spring cups, one of the cups can be seen in the picture above as the sliver semicircle. To remove, we used pliers to turn the cups at the front while holding the steady spring pins at the rear of the back plate with our finger.

Next, by using a screwdriver, we turned the adjuster wheel to loosen and remove the self-adjuster push rod. This meant that we then just needed to remove the return springs and lift out the shoes.


Turning the adjuster wheel with a screwdriver (this is on the right hand side of the camper)

The last bit to be removed was the wheel cylinder. First, to prevent loss of brake fluid, the hydraulic brake hose was clamped. Next, the bleed screw and bolt holding the cylinder in place were removed so that the cylinder could be released.


Brakes with removed shoes

We refitted the new cylinder, by attaching the bleed screw to it, then the bolt and then the hydraulic brake hose. Next we refitted both of the new shoes, attaching the return springs and the old self-adjuster push rod. Now came the hard bit. It is relatively easy to take the steady spring cups off but a nightmare to put them on. Luckily enough for my friend he had to go off, thereby leaving Dad and I to struggle with getting the cups on ourselves!

What an ordeal! I tried holding the pins at the rear of the back plate with my fingers while my dad tried turning the cups, which were sitting on the springs, with pliers at the front. This, sadly, was not a success. We then swapped roles but again failed to make any headway. We made several attempts and eventually gave up! Well I did! Dad was determined. He rang his brother to ask for suggestions and Voila! he managed it, on his own! Do not ask me how, I believe it must have been the luck of the Irish no other explanation for it.

So we had changed the rear brake shoes and cylinder on the left wheel. One down only the right wheel left to go before returning to tackle the front brakes!

16/05/09 Second Attempt At The Brakes!

After discovering the need for new brake discs and calipers, I had to ring up a VW dealership to find out what types I needed. When I rang they told me that Volkswagen does not make my camper van's brake discs any more and so were unable to quote me a price! They also told me that my camper is on the cusp of when T25s went from air-cooled to water cooled, which meant they were not sure exactly what type of calipers my camper needed. Changing the brakes became a little harder than taking off the wheel, replacing some parts, putting the wheel back on and job done!

So for our next tinkering session we decided to look at the brake parts, to see if they had a number or a name on, then we could order them from GSF.

We jacked the camper up again and unbolted the wheel and looked all over the caliper for a name or number but they were so badly rusted we were unable to see any detail on them!



That meant the next thing we needed to do was to remove a brake pad. Well when I say we I mean my friend. Due to the camper not moving in the last five years the brakes had seized up and the brake pads were very 'snuggled' in. When trying to remove the brake pad my friend managed to snap his 'INDESTRUCTIBLE' screwdriver! However, with a bit of wiggling around he eventually got the pad out in one piece! My dad then cut a bit of wood to wedge in the gap where the brake pad had been, as a temporary measure. As nothing else could be done at that time we just popped the wheel back on.


Putting the wheel back on

28/03/09 First Attempt At The Brakes

OK well we did start on the brakes a little later in the day than planned! This was down to a new experience for me called 'scrapping'! I was just tagging along with my friend who needed to get parts for his cars before we started on the camper. So I ended up spending the morning standing on a 6ft wall, holding open the boot of a golf, which was precariously balanced on top of another car, while my friend leaned into the boot to cut out what he needed!

Anyway after our balancing act we went on to another scrap yard to try and find Volvo door cards. While there my friend pointed out a white T25 behind some cars. So while he was hunting around for what he needed I made my way over to it. It was tightly tucked away and I had to crawl through several cars and vans to get close to it. Once I had managed to get out of the boot of the van I had crawled into I was able to get a better look at it. It was a sad sight the van had been stripped bare. Most of the doors had gone too. All that was left were the exterior panels.

When I had managed to crawl back out of the mass of cars, we found the door cards we needed and went home to tinker with my camper :)!

We had decided to take off the right front wheel to have a look at the brakes and the thought was just to clean them up before we put it in for an M.O.T. Well that was the plan anyway!

We jacked up the camper so the wheel was off the ground. Once we had taken off the hub cap, using a screw driver, we started to undo the five bolts holding the wheel on, starting with the top ones first. When we had undone them all we then took the whole wheel off so we could inspect the brake discs and the calipers. What a sight! The discs where really rusty and when we started to brush them down we realised they where extremely pitted. This meant new brake discs. After a closer inspection of the calipers we realised we would also need new ones of these. As we needed to order the parts and it had started to rain we just popped the wheel back on and called it a day.
:(


The brake discs and calipers

It was a shame we didn't actually change or fix anything, but I did learn how to jack up a vehicle and take the wheel off! Anyway it has helped as we now know what we need to order from GSF and what the plan is for next time.

20/02/09 Engine Basics

The next move was to tinker with the engine. We where just going to change the basics: the distributor cap (dizzy cap), rotor arm, HT leads, king lead, spark plugs, oil filter and the oil. Now I had no idea what any of these parts looked liked or did, so when my mate picked them up from GSF (German, Swedish & French) I was actually quite excited! They came all nice and neat in their little boxes and even when I had taken them out and inspected them, I was still none the wiser where they went or what they did!

We then took a look at the engine. At first glance it just looked like a mass of metal and rubber with tubes flying off in all directions! Then when I started to look at it more closely, I was able to recognise the different parts of the engine, well the parts we where going to replace!

First things first, we started by replacing the rotor arm, which is located inside the distributor cap. We unclipped the distributor cap and took out the old rotor arm and popped in the new one. As we where going to replace the dizzy cap anyway we took the HT leads off one at a time and attached then to the same place on the new dizzy cap. Once we had done that we clipped the distributor cap back on. First bit done!


Dizzy cap with HT leads and king lead attached

Next was the HT leads, king lead and spark plugs. There are four HT leads and one king lead, which are all attached to the distributor cap at one end. We started with the HT leads first, following the lead from the cap to where the other end was attached in the engine. We then disconnected the lead from that end in order to remove the spark plugs. By using a spark plug socket, we pulled out the spark plugs. They were completely black, which apparently means that the engine is running rich.
We greased up the threads on the new spark plugs and put them in, then we changed the old HT lead for a new one. Once we had done all four we changed the king lead and we where finished with this section of the engine. It was time to get our hands dirty and replace the oil and the oil filter!



The engine

We then needed to go under the camper to locate the sump plug (this plug keeps in the oil). We had placed a bucket underneath because my friend had said the oil would just pour out. He meant pour out! I slowly unscrewed the sump plug and before I realised I had taken out the plug the oil had managed to go all over the socket and my hands (luckily I was wearing gloves!). Fortunately, the rest managed to pour into the bucket! We let the oil drain out into the bucket and then moved onto the oil filter.

We used an oil filter removing wrench to unscrew the oil filter from under the camper. Then we just attached the new oil filter refitted the sump plug and wohla we where done with tinkering underneath! The last and final thing we needed to do for the day, was to replace the oil we had just drained. We did this by pouring new oil down the oil pipe, located behind the back number plate.


Unscrewing the sump plug

The camper is now one step closer to getting on the road again!! Glastonbury here I come :). Well M.O.T garage at any rate! It looks like the next thing we will tinker with will be the front brakes. Can't actually wait!!!

29/12/08 The First Move!

I can't believe I have actually started getting this project going!!!! I've been trying to start for 3 years! However, these projects move a lot faster when you know a VW enthusiastic who can fix engines :).
So I better say what I've got! Its a 1985 dark red T25 VW camper van. I've had it since I was 3 and the love of VW campers grew from there. Yet it has been neglected for about 5 years, untill the other day it had no battery!
My friend came over (the VW enthusiastic I was talking about!) to say how bad the neglect was. The camper has rot in the seams which will be costly as body work is normally very expensive.
Well anyway he had come prepared and brought a battery to try and start the camper!!! So we put the battery in and started it up. The engine sounded really lethargic, this was due to the battery not being powerful enough.
A trip to Halfords was needed, where we bought a HB010+ battery (I have no idea what this means, just that it works with my camper!). When we fitted this to the camper it started with ease :) MY CAMPER CAN GO !!!!! However, we didn't drive it as its break fluid has most probably broken down, not good in any moving vehicle!
The engine though makes this clapping sound at the moment so I'm assuming this will be the next task! I can't wait :)