Trailmix Beetle

chuckspence
Posts: 297
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 12:42 pm

Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by chuckspence »

Great... now sell it and buy a bus.
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Dual Port
Posts: 1305
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2010 10:06 am

Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by Dual Port »

Keith brought me a disc brake setup to install on the ’66 Beetle.

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At glance it looks pretty good- new spindles, calipers, brackets, a separate rotor/hub assy, bearings, hoses, dual MC, T3 reservoir, etc. Let’s see how it goes.

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The cal mounts are symmetrical, not left and right.

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First clean the paint from the spindles, I don’t want BJs and tie rod tapered ends riding in paint, they’ll loosen up. I have a large variety of wire brushes that I chuck up in a drill to clean nasty holes out.

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Keith helped. (Really, he did!)

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Drop the old spindles off,

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Drive the bearing races into the rotor, pack the bearings, install the seals. One seal doesn’t want to cooperate.

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Mount the spindles and rotors. What’s this wobble when I spin the rotor????

Let’s figure this one out- the rotor has .022” runout, not good. This will cause a low pedal, noise from the cal slides, but not pulsation like most people think. That’s caused by parallelism.

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Movie clip:

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http://vid524.photobucket.com/albums/cc ... mf9qcp.mp4


Runout on the hub is .010”, the problem is in the hub and the rotor is probably OK. I’ll let Keith take that off and send it back. 

Movie clip:
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http://vid524.photobucket.com/albums/cc ... wfcgwq.mp4

Mounting the calipers and things look really stupid. Who the phuck puts calipers at the bottom of the spindle? Not only does it make bleeding a chore, but the hoses could be hit by road debris.

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The cals have two bleeders each, both pointing down. This is gonna be fun.

The hoses CB provided were too short and were pulled super tight near the stops. I had Keith run to LA for parts. Getting the hoses to fit right and not rub stuff when you turned the wheel proved to be a bit of a task.

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WTF is this BS? Lug nuts and an adapter washer to go from a tapered lug seat to a ball lug seat? Ugh! Keith ordered some correct style lugs that seemed to fit much better. Aftermarket shit!

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Demonstrate to Keith how to siphon gas without getting a mouthful, drain the tank, pull it, and start looking at mounting the MC reservoir. I had him get a T3 reservoir as they seem to retrofit better when going to a dual system.


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Cut a cardboard template,

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Make it fit, transfer to .045” (thicker stuff, probably 18 ga) steel, bend it in my “brake”, start test fitting.
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Mig it in place, hit it with a couple coats of primer and a couple of color.

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Mount the jug, plumb the hoses, notice the grommet where the hoses go through the body in the original hole.

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The MC stuff went well, pull the pushrod out, clean it, set the endplay at 1mm, bolt the MC in place. CB’s supply hoses were too short so I ran new ones. A clamp to the tunnel secured things so they don’t rub on the tierods.

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I have to hold the cal in my hand in the proper orientation (bleeder up) and have Keith pump the MityVac tool.

For a picture I set the cal on the top of the rotor, which would have worked too. Keith pumps the tool while I make crude jokes about strokes and fluid coming. Bled all four twice, it took a little longer than my bus or Sean’s, probably a half hour. Once bled, the cals can be bolted on for good with Loctite.

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After a road test Keith says it stops great, the pedal is right on top. Cool!

BUT- all in all, the CB kit is a poorly engineered POS. I would NEVER suggest someone buy one. Sean's disc brake kit was crap too, but not nearly as bad as this. Why can't these companies engineer something that works? WTF is the problem with these people? Ugh! It's a real fight to properly install something that's this bad, just terrible. :x
Bruce Amacker
'66 Deluxe Bus
'65 Standard Bus
toolbox
Posts: 902
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:58 pm

Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by toolbox »

Dual Port wrote: Tue Mar 14, 2017 10:20 pm Keith brought me a disc brake setup to install on the ’66 Beetle.



Mount the spindles and rotors. What’s this wobble when I spin the rotor????

Let’s figure this one out- the rotor has .022” runout, not good. This will cause a low pedal, noise from the cal slides, but not pulsation like most people think. That’s caused by parallelism.




Runout on the hub is .010”, the problem is in the hub and the rotor is probably OK. I’ll let Keith take that off and send it back. 



BUT- all in all, the CB kit is a poorly engineered POS. I would NEVER suggest someone buy one. Sean's disc brake kit was crap too, but not nearly as bad as this. Why can't these companies engineer something that works? WTF is the problem with these people? Ugh! It's a real fight to properly install something that's this bad, just terrible. :x
The high runout will cause knockback and like you said a poorly feeling pedal. It will also cause material transfer to the rotor on the high spot and that will cause judder and pedal pulsation if the pad material has poor cleanability.

I will snap some pictures of a test we are setting up today with cap probes to measure rotor coning and runout.
trailmix
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 3:48 pm

Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by trailmix »

After Bruce installed the new CB Performance disc brake kit for the front, I decided that I wanted to find out what the car would look like with all black wheels. This is something I've struggled with because the wheels still had the original paint and I liked the way it looked. With new smoothie wheels on the wish list, I had been looking at what color to paint them. Now was a good time to figure that out and sacrifice the stock color or the original wheels. I have to say that I'm very happy with how they came out. Now the chrome hubcaps really stand out.
I prepped the wheels with a simple speed-blast gun from Eastwood using sand for the abrasive material. The old paint was gone in no time. I also used 220 grit to get the rest, then scotch brite to prep them for paint. I was not happy with the Eastwood primer paint at all. It didn't cover like I thought it should and took both cans back. I really think it was a bad batch. Two cans of Krylon gloss black and here they are. Two portable heaters in the garage to get the wheel surface somewhat warm on a frigid day in the garage. Since my garage barely fits the car, I covered the car with everything I could get my hands on to keep any overspray off. There was just enough room to set a wheel on the floor beside the car to paint. Plus a fan propped up at the doggie door on the garage door helped with ventilation. It actually works pretty well.
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TRL
Posts: 612
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2012 1:59 pm

Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by TRL »

Nice! I love the black!
The Rick Lang
trailmix
Posts: 83
Joined: Sat Dec 06, 2014 3:48 pm

Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by trailmix »

My wife was driving the beetle and I was following her coming back from an event last weekend when I noticed the brake lights we not working. She pulled over and I investigated the problem.
Well, the brake lights work great....but only when a LOT of pressure is put on the brake pedal. From some internet searching I've learned that the switch works on pressure. When the pressure reaches a certain level, it completes the circuit in the switch and the brake lights come on. Very few times I think I have ever used the brakes that hard. Now it's in my head and I'm scared to drive the car thinking the brake lights are not coming on.
Is there an adjustment in the linkage that will help this issue? Is there switches that only use a smaller amount of pressure to activate?
If I try to change out the switches, will a bleed be necessary?
The master cylinder was just upgraded to a dual reservoir and like I said, the switch and lights do work.
Any help so I can join you on the Spring Cruise??
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Dual Port
Posts: 1305
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 2010 10:06 am

Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by Dual Port »

The pressure switch is mounted on the master cylinder, chances are whoever did the upgrade botched the install.

Replace the switch with a new one (I have them if you can't find one close by). No bleeding is needed if you work briskly, a small amount of fluid may drip out. Use no sealer, do not over tighten.

The brake lights on these style of systems do not come on as quickly as brake lights in a modern car.

:)
Bruce Amacker
'66 Deluxe Bus
'65 Standard Bus
toolbox
Posts: 902
Joined: Thu Dec 18, 2008 2:58 pm

Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by toolbox »

trailmix wrote: Tue May 23, 2017 12:59 pm My wife was driving the beetle and I was following her coming back from an event last weekend when I noticed the brake lights we not working. She pulled over and I investigated the problem.
Well, the brake lights work great....but only when a LOT of pressure is put on the brake pedal.
Go to Susquehanna MotorSports and buy this switch and your troubles will be over. Yes it is $18 but you don't have to worry about it having a catastrophic failure like the $5 Chinese switch. I have had one on my truck for 15 years with no issue.


HL66228 Stop Light Switch, 2 Prong, OEM P/N 113 945 515H

http://www.rallylights.com/hl66228-stop ... -515h.html
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Dual Port
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Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by Dual Port »

There's a big, very positive article on Trailmix in today's PD page D2.

http://www.cleveland.com/mycleveland/in ... video.html



:D
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Bruce Amacker
'66 Deluxe Bus
'65 Standard Bus
Six Volt
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Joined: Mon Dec 15, 2008 7:25 am

Re: Trailmix Beetle

Post by Six Volt »

Nice! That's great publicity too!
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