e-brake ends to 944T

[zen]

i have filled the ends on my bug e-brake cables and shaped the to fit the 944 brackets. when fitting the cable through the trailing arm the end comes up short due to the metal sleeve and spring retainer. how have you guys resolved this? i was thinking of pulling that stuff off, cutting back the rubber sleeve some and then refitting everything, but thought that would just leave the spring limp.

how did anyone else handle this?

[boygenius]

If you are talking about the metal "elbow" end I just used my dremal to remove some metal so it would slide into the trailing arm. I am in the pracess o fre-doing my e-brake right now. I'm using the 944 cable ends on beetle cables. They seem to fit a bit better. 944 cable end>bug cable>944 tension spring>944 rubber guide tube ( trimmmed down )>e-brake handle... I'm still in the process of building it so I dont know if it will work yet.

[zen]

i ended up doing the same. just took the angle grinder to it and took it down to about 12mm. i'm done fabbing the ends. have the left side together, just have to put the right together and see if everything really does work.

[Steve C]

Hi

I just ground my VW ends parralel and bolted the stock ends to 944 levers with some 6mm high tensile bolts with nylocs. I had to shorten the steel guide tube that fits into the back of the backing plate.

Steve C

[MattKab]

I did near same as SteveC, unmodified 944 shoe spreader, M5 bolt/nyloc, ~16mm off the guide tube, 3 layers of heatshrink to splice to unmodified T1 cable/outer. As I posted last summer, I intend to modify the spreader, similar to the pic in the gallery.

I also plan to cut the elbow of the end of the T1 cable outer then make a collar to gain the neccessary few mm and make a neater, more rigid and straighter splice.

I'd like to be able to stop my car using the handbrake, or emergency brake as it's sometimes called. And some times its only called a park brake. Why is that?

I'm very fortunate to have unrestricted access to one of these: http://www.arex.nl/dispmodule.html

The 944 handbrake needs all the help it can get. Many modern cars use this idea of a drum brake within a disc brake. I examine vehicles for VOSA (formerly the Vehicle Inspectorate) Class 4 and 7 MOT daily, I expect to see this type of brake excert mid to high 20's % of the vehicles mass as braking force during a rolling ~4mph handbrake test. I'm currently only getting low 20's inside my '87 951 rear discs. The minimum (in the UK) is 16% regardless of imbalance.

Compare that to the 30-40% a stock beetle can pull (after an overhaul) One healthy handbrake and one non-existent, on a stock Beetle can pass this test- easily. 944, no chance.

Matt

[danielzink]

Maybe this helps......maybe it doesn't....maybe I went about it the hillbilly way...you tell me.

I had CB Performance discs on my car.
I went to 944T 4 pots.
I don't know what ebrake cables CB uses in their kits but I found a way to utilize them.

Here's the CB cable and end.


I shortened the parking brake tube on the 944T backing plates


I ground a little flat in the ebrake cable end and welded a bolt to it


Fed the bolt up through the bottom of the ebrake pull and put a nylock nut on it


then safety wired the cable to the original bolt in the backing plate so it wouldn't move around or pull out




Works like a dream !!

Dan

[zen]

doesn't help me daniel, but a damn good answer with photos.

i will take you up on the safety wire idea. have to see how i can make that work in my case. i have not finished, but was planning on using the stock pin and circlip for the cable to attach to the spreader. seems like everyone is going with a bolt and nylock nut instead. is this recommended or did you guys just not have the stock pin.

[Steve C]

Originally Posted by MattKab

The 944 handbrake needs all the help it can get.

Matt

Hi

Ive used, stock handbrake (of course), Type 3 rear drums, 914 with Golf callipers and now 944s. I have to agree with you Matt, they are like ashtrays on a motorbike, useless.

Steve C

[Sandeep]

Is this what you are talking about ?

http://www.germanlook.com/Forums/showthread.php?t=3353

It works like a charm for me ... stock beetle cables incase I ever break one.

Sandeep

[Typ Vier]

Hi,
I`ve chosen to go the Sandeep way and have to say it works good.
Got the rear assembled using GT3 discs, offset is slightly different need 3mm spacers to go between the discs and the hubs made.

Andreas

[hot66]

I'm using these parts from Kerscher

[matara]

Hot66 how hard was the Kerscher setup to fit? I have ordered the items and was wondering how easy it makes it?

Thanks

Steve

[boygenius]

Here is what I did for my e-brakes with my aluminum arms. I welded up the actuator and notched it to accept the beetle cable. I norrowed the cable end from 14mm diameter to 12mm diameter to fit inside the trailing arm just like the 944 cables did. The narrowed section of the beetle cable end is approx 21mm long. Since the cables were a little to long ( might be due to the used e-brake shoes ) I added some 12mm washers over the ends of the cable to take up some major slack. That way I can just use the e-brake adjusters for the fine tuning. Here are a few pics.





I narrowed the ends to 12mm for a length of 18mm on the end of the "elbow" end of the e-brake cable. I used (2) 3mm washers to take up the slack in the cables and they help the cables sit flat in the trailing arms.