sticking, frozen 68 VW bug brakes

It has happened to almost everyone and each has his own trick.

For ones like this that are solidly locked, I like to remove the wheel and rap the drum with a mallet/hammer. The vibration breaks the rust bond to the shoes. Some folks claim you can do it by hammering on the wheel or the lug bolts or the axle nut.

You can *try* to simply loosen the adjuster stars, but I bet it will be an exercise.

HINT: Never apply the hand brake when storing the car or even when parking overnight if it is damp.

Speedy Jim

If this car has the brake adjuster holes on the INSIDE of the brake housings:

Crawl under the car and pull the plugs out of the inspection holes. The inspection holes are the two OUTER holes of the 4.

Take a big punch and hammer and place the end of the punch in one of the inspection holes and against the side of the brake shoe. Hit the punch with the hammer.

If you get a big springy SPROINNNNGG. then that shoe is loose; move on to the next shoe.

If you get a solid hammer blow, then repeat until that shoe breaks free.

Repeat until all the shoes (2 per wheel) are free.

Don't use the parking brake for long term storage.

----------------------------------------------- Jim Adney snipped-for-privacy@vwtype3.org Madison, WI 53711 USA

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Move south where it's warm.

Seriously, are all of 'em really stuck or maybe is it just the rears because you left the emergency brake on? If it's the emergency thing, just bang the rear brake drum arm with a hammer.

If your bumper mounts can handle it, JUMP up and down on the rear bumper so the rear suspension is forced to travel as much as possible. Has worked for me several times.

Jan