OR BEST -- Brake Bias?

[david58]

The stock VW brake system works really good when everything is adjusted and working properly.... on the STREET! You may have noticed your Baja’s tendency to lock up its front tires while the rears seem to do nothing at all on surfaces with decreased traction. The large rear tires and smaller front tires also play an important roll in this tendency. The front wheels have difficulty steering the car when they aren't rolling! If you haven't noticed this then you probably don't drive on dirt/gravel roads very often this can be annoying and dangerous, because this happens in the rain too.

What needs to be done is to change the stock system so it provides more braking power to the rear wheels. The stock setup has larger slave cylinders at the front and smaller ones at the rear. The master cylinder is also valved differently between the front and rear outputs. The cheapest way to go (free!) is to change the slave cylinders front to rear and switch the outputs on the master.
I know that on I.R.S. cars the front and rear slaves can be swapped no problem; I am not sure about the earlier cars (which aren't worth bajaing anyway).
The problem comes in with the master. It has two separate outputs for the front and one for the rear. You have to connect the rear line to a front output and block the other front output. Then you have to get a "T" fitting to split the rear output into two separate outputs for the front lines. (Got all that?)

A *really* easy way around this is to get a pre-67 VW bus master cylinder; it has three outputs that are valved equally because it only has one piston. A friend of mine just did the conversion with the stock master but I am doing the conversion with a bus unit.

The rear wheel cylinders fit perfectly in the front and the front ones fit perfectly in the rear. When you do the modifying, it is also a good idea to take the wheel cylinders apart to clean and inspect the rubber parts, replacing anything that’s worn out. I noticed that one of the slots on the cylinder that the brake shoe fits into was missing one side so I replaced that whole cylinder with one off the '68, no problem.

The result of this is that now the brakes pretty much act like they used to when there were stock tires on. Everything is even; the fronts no longer lock up, now the rears lock up before the fronts do. This is good when fish tailing the rear out, the unlocked fronts can still steer. I'm really happy with they way they work now.

Another advantage is when backing down a steep hill. Before, I couldn't do it slowly, I would always end up locking up the front and sliding rather dangerously down the hill. With the brakes set-up this way I can back down slowly and safely.

The bigger piston in the bus master cylinder makes the pedal a little harder to push but it is also very powerful. The brakes will NOT lock up on pavement no matter how hard I tried. The stopping power is incredible.

I copied this info and edited the spelling from:
http://www.geocities.com/Baja/Dunes/409 ... htmlBrakes!

[david58]

The Rear Brake System
What about this Type2 Brake Pressure Regulator? Have we been over looking this VW part in our quest to have more rear stopping power? Go down to the third pic.................