vw bus wheel locked

Why not rule out the brakes first. Tap (hard) the brake drum with a hammer, tap tap tap the release. Did that help? (Your drum might be rusted to the shoes.)

But he said he could rotate the wheel a little bit, and that when he put the emergency brake on it locked it up completely. I don't see how that could be the case if the drum is rusted to the shoe(s).

"I can hammer it back into shape later." :wq!

He could rotate it a 'bit'. Sure, that could be a bearing problem, but why not be sure he doesn't have a hung shoe anyway?

Could it be that the RHS brake has gone out of adjustment in the 50 miles since it was brought out of storage? Just a thought, I know even less about brakes than veedubs in general...

A.

Okay, here are my best Shots: I don't THINK the drum would rotate at all with a frozen shoe, definitely not 3" total rotation. I'm leaning toward something jammed against the CV joint, like a backed-off CV joint bolt. Could be the handbrake lever inside the drum jamming against one of the lug bolt heads (on the back side of the drive flange). Very unlikely anything inside the tranny. If the brakes have not been adjusted for a long time, it could be most any component fallen into a position of jamming something, but there isn't a lot to jam against, so I think it has to be either CV joint related or something in the drum jamming against either the notch in the drive flange or the head (s) of the wheel lug bolts. -BH

over the

last trip

and rotate

with the

emergency

freely as I

something

The most likely cause is that a brake shoe has rusted to the drum. Was the car stored with the E-brake applied?

You can rotate the wheel some simply because the brakes are not applied; this means that there is some slop available in the shoes.

The easiest way to test this, and to fix it, is to crawl under the car and take a hammer and punch with you. Open the shoe inspection ports inside the backing plate. Slip the punch thru the backing plate and put it against the side of the shoe. Tap the punch with the hammer.

If the shoe is free, it will bounce because there is a spring there. If so, try the other one. If not, tap it harder until you knock it loose. Do both shoes until they both "bounce" on their springs.

Don't hammer on the drum, this is unlikely to help, and likely to damage the drum.

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

-----------------------------------------------

Holy Smokes..

thanks for all the input folks...

I don't think that the brake shoe has rusted to the drum.. the vehicle has done

the wheel turns too freely for the 1.5" in either direction to have a shoe stuck to the drum. The stop on either side feels mechanical.

I'll pull the drum later this week and see if there is something jamming it and if not, I'll pull the axle and hopefully isolate it there..

-a

Sounds to me more like a wheel bolt thats too long? I had that on my bug, and after putting shorter ones in, it all turned OK

When I bought my Bug, it hadn't moved in five years and the shoes were rusted solid to the drums. If that was the case, trust me, there would be

Just a week or so ago a piece of my break bar (operating link) snapped off and fell down between my brake pad and the drum. That had a similar effect to what is being described. I think it happened when I pulled the hand brake and applied some pressure to that bar. By the way, those things are indestructable ... unless you bend one a little bit. Woops. ;-)

If you haven't done so all ready, you need to get into that drum and see what the hell is going on in there. I bet that parts fall out when the drum comes off. With your hand brake on, and your wheels blocked from BOTH sides (REALLY WELL), losen your four lug bolts, remove the cotter pin, and losen your 36MM nut. Thats a real bastard. My advice, invest in a long breaker bar (1/2 inch) and a 36MM socket to go with it. Now jack up the car, remove the tire, and remove the drum.

Release the hand brake at this point!!! Or the drum won't come off silly.

If the drum comes right off, then your brake pads were not rusted to the drum, and in fact weren't close to the drum at all. If they give you some resistance, get behind the wheel, and pry off the little rubber/plastic plug covers, and shine a flashlight in the holes. You need to find a little gear with teeth on it and work it with a screwdriver. Muirs book describes this procedure pretty well. He says to turn it 10 to 15 times. And if you haven't losened or tightened it (depending on what you were trying to do) then you were working in the wrong direction! ;-)

Take that drum off and see what's, what!

May the force be with you.

-Ray

Doesn't need to remove the hub - just the drum. Pull wheel off, pull drum off. Leave big nut alone! There is the remote possibility that a wheel bearing cage broke, but I highly doubt it! -BH

the shoes were

me, there would be

link) snapped off

a similar effect

pulled the hand

those things are

Woops. ;-)

that drum and see

out when the drum

blocked from BOTH sides

cotter pin, and losen

in a long breaker

up the car, remove

come off silly.

rusted to the

they give you some

rubber/plastic plug

find a little gear

book describes this

And if you

were trying to do)

We must have different models (mines a 68'). My drum is held on with that big wheel nut.

-Ray

You're correct; the separate drum and hub design came out in '71.

Speedy Jim

And the continuation of the saga...

The drum has not been off in years and it's the variety that has a big (and I do mean big) castellated nut holding it on

Finally drilled out the cotter pin and found that the nut is not

Anybody have any idea how big that nut really is or do I need to get a caliper to measure it..

I'm also assuming that if I apply heat to it to get it off I'm not going to damage anything in the interim?

(And I thought my Land Rover was a pain in the rump to work on) :-)

-a

The nut is 46mm. If that's hard to find, get a 1 13/16" size; it's almost identical.

BUT>>>>> you need at least a 3/4" solid drive breaker, not a swivel style. The nut is torqued to 250 FOOT Lbs.

Heat should not be necessary. Use a 4 foot cheater pipe on the bar. Have someone stand on the brakes.

Speedy Jim

and if its like my bug, it can be anything... mine was something like