Wheel Cylinders

[AustHaflinger]

I am thinking about doing a refurb on my brakes - they work OK but could be better.

While I dont know the size of the actual wheel cylinders fitted to my vehicle it should have the 22mm cylinders at the front and the 15.?? on the rear. I would love to get new drums but they are very expensive.

So has anyone put larger (bigger than 22mm) wheel cylinders on the front and if you have what size and model did you use (VW?). If I am suck with the 22mm size I will stay with the 15mm rears, but if I do go larger on the front then I will go 22mm on the rear. If anyone has put larger cylinders on the front did you have to change the size of the Master Cylinder and if so what size and model etc?

A Landrover owner here recently changed his four drum brakes to four disks but found the standard brake booster was not good enough and has fitted an Electric Brake Booster - only runs when the brake pedal is pushed and apparently works well. I might look into this as well as for such a small car brake pedal force is quite high. Any one done this?

So a few questions there.

My rules for my registration will change next year where it will change from just Club use and the occasional maintenance run within 40km from home to 60days personal use as well as Club use and well as maintenance. So my use is going to increase substantially.

Cheers

Garry

[heinkeljb]

I don’t know any one who has changed the front wheel cylinder size, so can’t tell you of any other wheel cylinder that would work. The reason for the different cylinder sizes on a standard setup is down to the fact there is no brake bias unit between front and rear brake to cope with increasing and decreasing braking requirements when either loaded or not.
I know someone who has done a front disc conversion on a couple of Haf’s - means destroying the original front hubs as you have to cut off the shield part. Not sure if he changes the master cylinder or not. I have got a brake booster cylinder that was fitted to the utility versions of the Haf, but haven’t gotten round to fitting it as although it fits in a Polycab, there is less space under the dash in a metal front.
Might try firing it at some point.

John

[AustHaflinger]

Thanks John - I have a front disk brake conversion to go in my Landrover sometime so I did look at a similar conversion on the Haflinger and came to the conclusion too much butchering was required.

I would like stronger brakes on the front so if no one has but bigger wheel cylinders on the front, I will just go with new standard size cylinders.

One concern I do have in a refurb are the drums - I am reluctant to machine as they are almost unobtanium new, however in a refurb they should be machined which will result in some being below specifications. On a local forum I have asked if there are any local brake specialists who are able to remove the steel liner and press in a new one but no viable responses as yet.

Cheers

Garry

[heinkeljb]

I wonder if one of the European suppliers has stared doing that to drums yet? I'll have a look later today if I have a chance.

John

[AustHaflinger]

I am sure they do but I am not going to pay their prices.

Garry