Well... i must live in the triangle... but i don;t feel like sharing that part of the story right now  :lol:

so bugapaluza weekend i went up lookout mountain with a couple other FL dubs... we all roasted our brakes on the way down... especially the 58 split bus (you know that empty shell they pushed in the hippie races?) it's brakes were actually smoking  :shock:

well since then my brake pedal has seemed a bit spongy to me... yes it's a VW but, sorry, my car should stop on a dime.

so a couple weekends ago we bled the brakes and i adjusted the rear (which only needed adjusted one click) and the front calipers don;t require adjusting.  we also bled the brakes for any air... and i decided that the system needed to be flushed, but wasnt going to happen that day... so we bled the whole system (every last drop) yesterday...

well today i went for a drive in the car and there was not really any change... the pedal still feels spongy to me... now two things...
1. the brake pedal is not lined up with the clutch... it sits about a half inch forward of the clutch pedal (the back of the brake pedal is about even with the front of the clutch)
and
2. when i push the brake pedal it does not move more than two inches (i dont really know how far, but the top of my shoe is sticking up farther than my clutch pedal so maybe not quite 2 inches? it's not THAT far)

so... since i am still not satisfied with the brakes and there is no external fluid seepage, would it be a faulty master cylinder causing my problem?

i don't even know if this is a regular beetle MC that goes on the mexi and would hate to order a new one from mexico to find that wasnt the problem, but dont want to take a chance on my brakes...

any other ideas?

i know the pedals dont have to line up (i've had them way worse than this before) but it is always nice when they do... i know there is an adjustment for this, but i dont have any of my manuals up here and am not exactly sure how to do it... and it seems you're diagnosing for a problem different than mine... let me reexplain...

there was no problem in bleeding the brakes.... other than i didn't realize the bf used a partially fully can of brake fluid to store the old brake fluid in... and my bad for not checking the half full bottle that was sitting next to the full bottle... it was pouring out like new... so we bled the brakes putting old fluid in, then when he told me where he put the old fluid, i siphoned out all the fluid from the res. with 25ft of aquarium tubing (this was quite entertaining and triangle engineering at its finest!~) then proceeded to rebleed the system until all fluid came out new.... lots of work... but probably a thorough bleeding was needed.

i probably have one of the cleanest pedal clusters you have ever seen... no junk down there.... the brake pedal is out towards the driver more in it's free position, not towards the firewall.

i know that the push rod is adjustable... i also know that it's the last thing you want to adjust...

pm me your number and i will give you a call... i dont have and have yet to master my psychic abilities...

i've always bled the front first... only today did someone tell me i was supposed to bleed the back first. so i did some research on the subject online and came to the conclusion that everyone does it this way just because they do it this way... and no one had a justifiable reason...

on newer cars it should make no difference... you have two chambers for fluid which go in to the seperate chambers of the master... so what difference does it really make? honestly i dont understand why it would make a difference which one you did if you wanted to do it in a cross pattern even.... when you are bleeding brakes you are doing so to remove air from the system or change the brake fluid... if you bleed the left or right or front or back first, what does the air care? does the air think to itself, self, they bled the left front first, so i am going to stay put and not leave the system at all now? no, i don't think so. can you please explain how it would make a difference which one you bled first?

i bled this system from the closest to the master through the farthest from the master which is how i have always done (so far as i can remember)... i have bled single wheels in the past if i have done work to just that wheel....

now... i can go back and bleed the system again doing the right side first... but i really just can't see how that would make any difference... i bled the whole system until the brake fluid came out looking brand new.

the only area of concern on that was the right rear wheel... when i was bleeding it, no matter how close to closed i had the screw when bleeding, the screw itself would pull in air from the outside, which made it hard to tell if there was any air in the actual line... i bled that full line though... probably a good cup of brake fluid... so i don't think there is any air in it... unless by it pumping in air from the outside it put some in to the wheel cyl... BUT... they air only came through at the begining of the pumpand i could tell it was being pulled in through the bleeder... perhaps this weekend i will work on that some more... but i really dont know what i can do to fix that aside from replace the wheel cylinder.... and i don't know if that is a regular beetle wheel cyl.

now, i went out and drove the car again...  going 30 MPH (or somewhere near there) i hit the brakes at a mailbox (on an empty street of course) and when i was completely stopped my car was still beside the mailbox... but it was now past my door... i estimated maybe 6 feet of travel before the stop... and in my opinion it should be about half that... now there are many variables in my tests... some were flat, some were downhill, some were more downhill than others, some stopped quicker than others... and the speeds would vary slightly...

so far as i know the braking system is original and the car has 70,000 kilometers on it... the shoes look to have been replaced as they are quite thick (the shop i bought the car from said they just replaced all the brakes, but its mostly if not all mexican only so i dont know what they replaced)



i tried to call you, and left you a voicemail... i will try you again later... send me a PM with your address.... i can come out tomorrow any time before 1pm or sometime this weekend?

bf= boyfriend

i never jack my car up to bleed brakes... of course i'd have to with my lowered super...

clear tubing for the lines themselves? that would be interesting... but i dont think it would hold up as well

OK, here's how we do it in the "TRIANGLE" IF no one is looking.  Fill up the fluid reservior with clean fluid.  Put air pressure on top of the fluid.  Open a bleeder . . . pick a bleeder, any bleeder.  Let the fluid flow until the stuff coming out looks as clean as the stuff you poured in (remember, you poured in CLEAN fluid).  Now go to another bleeder and repeat the process.  Go to another bleeder and repeat the process.  Go to the last bleeder and repeat the process.  You're done.  There is no air in the system.  There is nothing but clean new fluid in the system.  Nobody had to pump the pedal for half an hour.  Everybody is happy.

OK, how do you put pressure on the reservior?  You can buy a high priced pressure bleeding system or make your own.  If you do it for a living, invest in a real system.  If you only do it once in a blue moon, you can make your own from a spare reservior cap, an old valve stem and a bicycle pump.  Drill a hole in the cap and shove the vavle stem in it.  Screw it on the reservior and pump it up.  Don't use much pressure or you'll blow something apart.  Don't let the reservior run dry or you'll have to start over.  It works best if you have a helper . . . one person keeps an eye on the fluid level and keeps a little pressure on the system while the other runs around opening and closing bleeders.  With two folks it takes 5 minutes tops.

So why do we wait until no one is looking to do it this way?  Well we do have a reputation to keep up.  We wouldn't want folks to think we actually have so GOOD ideas from time to time . . .    :lol: