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Wrong brake backing plates?

The rear brake backing plates on my 79 super were pretty rough, so I bought new ones from Cal Import Parts. Their catalog lists these as replacements for 79 SB. However, I notice that the old backing plates have a smooth, machined, unpainted mating surface on either side where the plate seats against the wheel bearing housing, and the bearing cover against the plate. The new backing plates from CIP don't have this: they're just pressed metal and not particularly flat where they meet the bearing housing and bearing cover. They're also painted where they need to mate.

Are these the wrong backing plates? They are rear plates ? they have the emergency brake line hole ? but they sure can't allow any kind of a tight seal between the bearing housing and bearing cover. Does CIP have these listed wrong?

Also ? my bearing covers don't seem to have the drain hole the book shows. Did these go away on later models?

Thanks

Reply to
Dan W
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You are supposed to use paper gaskets (with sealant) in between the backing plate and the housing & cover. The current rebuild kits have the gaskets, metal shim, and o-rings in it. Use them all. The kits are cheap.

The drain holes I dont know about, if the car is IRS then there's no oil to drain.. so it may well be that the IRS model covers don't have drain holes. The swing axle rear suspension however needs the drain holes. The holes in the bearing covers are often blocked and covered in hard crud and gunk, accumulated over the years.

Jan

Reply to
Jan Andersson

Thanks, Jan.

I have the rear axel seal kit, however the gaskets don't fit between the backing plate and the bearing housing. The diameter of the bearing housing where the backing plate fits over it is a bit larger than the hole in the gasket. Plus there were (apparently) no paper gaskets on either side of the backing plate originally. Does that sound right? Also, I didn't encounter the small o ring or the metal shim anywhere on disassembly. There is an inner seal I haven't removed from the bearing housing beacuse the seal kit doesn't provide a replacement, plus it appears to be OK.

This is a 79 SB cabriolet with 80k miles, and there's no evidence that the bearing covers or backing plates had ever been removed before.

I'm tempted to clean-up and re-use the original backing plates, and just replace the bearing cover seal and large O ring.

There's definitely no drain hole in the bearing cover.

Reply to
Dan W

There is no gasket required on the IRS models and no shim or small O-ring either. The larger O-ring is not the same as the Swing axle O-ring. The IRS cover does not have the drain hole so all seems correct with your set-up.

On a related point, regarding the swing axle, there is no particular requirement for sealant and there is no gasket fitted between the housing and backing plate, only between the backing plate and cover.

Reply to
Peter

Sounds to me that the super beetle (and any other IRS rear axle vehicle ) uses a different seal kit. Since there's no oil to leak, it makes sense that they'd omit various o-rings and gaskets and whatnot. And the overflow hole.

Jan

Reply to
Jan Andersson

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