help required mk1 front brakes

[deskpotato]

Hi, trying to install new pads and brake discs on my mk1 diesel....unfortunately, im a bit of a mechanical retard and it seems a tad more complicated than my old el falcon. there appears to be a caliper and a caliper holder as 2 separate parts and two 15mm? bolts holding them on.. I dont want to take them off without some form of detailed instruction in case i screw it up and need the car towed... would anyone be able to scan and post how to do this from a mk1 repair manual? all i have is a diesel engine suppliment and im a uni student and blew all my spare cash on the parts... would be very appreciative for any help guys, cheers, will.


P.S. Best, most detailed reply will receive free naked pics of my mum....

[Jarred]

I have a petrol model, but my calipers are one unit, the two bolts on the other side (ie non wheel side) of the disc hold the caliper in place. Caliper should be one unit i think.

[deskpotato]

ty for your reply....so when i remove the caliper is it easy enough to see how the pads come out/back in? i was mostly going on the information supplied in this page... but its obviously quite a different setup... http://faculty.ccp.edu/faculty/dreed...tbrakepads.htm

[Peter Jones]

You should be able to change the pads without removing the calipers.
There's two type of brakes that could be on your GLD.

Type 1 has two pins that hold the pads in.

Just pull the pins out (after removing the retaining clips or split pins), remove the spring that sits on top of the pads and pull the pads straight out the back of the caliper. You can usually get the piston to go back in far enough by applying some pressure between the pad and the disc with a lever.

The other type has a one piece pin that is retained by an M8 bolt.

Undo the bolt pull out the pin, then as above.

There's some pictures of brakes on this thread.

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newforum/upload/showthread.php?t=11723

The first photo is the bolt retained pin type and the bottom photo is the two pin type. Neither requires removing the caliper to replace the pads.

Pete

[Peter Jones]

I didn't notice you're replacing the disc too. You'll need to pull the caliper off to do that.

Have a look at some of my brake and suspension threads.

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newforum/upload/showthread.php?t=11723

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newforum/upload/showthread.php?t=11723

http://www.vwwatercooled.org.au/newforum/upload/showthread.php?t=11535

There's heaps of photos of what's involved, it's pretty simple.

Pete

[deskpotato]

hi peter, thanks for your reply, i have the 2 pin caliper , but i have hit a snag in ordering the brake discs... is this the 10mm disc or the 12mm disc??? they wont take my order til i find out for sure... i dont suppose you would know?? also, i bought new old stock pads off ebay which are db105, which were listed as diesel pads... apparently i need db128??? according to vw hobart..... i guess they would be right instead of some guy on ebay... bugger, he had db128 pads too, but listed them as golf petrol pads.....

[Peter Jones]

PM sent.

DB 105 goes with 10mm discs on a GLD (Diesel)
DB 128 goes with 12mm discs on a GLS (Petrol)

DB105 and DB128 are the same shape but the DB105 is thicker.

so

DB128 will work on a 10mm disc.

I think you can use either combination of disc/pad as I'm pretty sure the GLD and GLS calpiers are the same. Can someone please confirm this?

Pete

[deskpotato]

thanks peter, however this is contrary to the bendix website which states the opposite.. that db105 are petrol golf pads and db128 are for diesel models www.bendix.com.au hence my confusion cause everyone else seems to think the opposite... but i think i will just order the 10mm discs given that i have bought the db105 pads and take my chances, many thanks for your help, its much appreciated. p.s. took a longer look at the caliper setup and it does look quite easy once you understand how it comes apart, so many thanks for that also.... cant believe they would make a brake setup like that though, what happens if the clip breaks and the retaining pin comes out????? **** would get very ****ity very quickly....tad dodgy, vw....

[Peter Jones]

Nah they never fall out. Beetle ones are even worse, their pins have a sort of clip on the end and just press into place. They don't fall out either.

I'm runing DB105 on a 10mm disc.

I'll try and double check the part numbers when I get a chance. Could be I've got it the wrong way 'round. The thin pad will work on both, the thick pad will work only on the 10mm disc.

Pete

[deskpotato]

its ok, just so long as i can put a 10mm disc on either model without a caliper issues...... the vw parts guy seemed to think the calipers were different sizes too.. but if the 10mm ones ive ordered dont fit for some reason, ill just hold them up to an exchange...

[Preen59]

two 15mm? bolts

P.S. Best, most detailed reply will receive free naked pics of my mum....

Err, 16mm, no such thing as a 15mm bolt. Sorry i had to say it. This no common sense 'engineer' out at work asked me and another guy to use a 15mm bolt to hold up this tiny RHS beam once. It's a bit of an in joke at work.

Not saying you have no common sense though, because you've got on here and asked people admitting you know very little instead of being arrogant and going balls and all into it and wrecking stuff. So thumbs up!

What's your mum look like?

[Peter Jones]

I just had a look at my cars. They are both originally GLDS and both had 10mm discs on them when I got them. They each had the different styles of callipers though. I fitted DB-105 pads to both of them and have been stopping happily ever since.

I seem to remember returning a set of pads once because they were too thick, these could have been the DB-128s I suppose, which kind of makes me wonder what's going on here.

One car has since been upgraded to GTI vented rotors which use DB-401 pads.

The other has new 10mm discs and is definitely running DB-105 pads.

I had a look at the Bendix catalog and a few others and got more confused.

They claim the DB-128 is the one for a diesel and is 18mm thick.
Likewise they say the DB-105 is for petrol and is 14.8mm thick.

In any case the DB-105 could be considered as a partially worn down DB-128 because they're they same shape just thinner.



When I fittted the brand new 10mm discs, the DB-105s were quite a snug fit, I don't think I could have gotten another 6.4mm of pad in there. I made sure the piston was fully pressed back beforehand too.

Pete

[ontarv]

thats a normal most people don't know
that the bolt size goes by the thread eg: m10 bolt
a 10 mm thread with a 15 mm hex head thus the prob
small things we all learnt at some point in time

[Peter Jones]

Err, 16mm, no such thing as a 15mm bolt. Sorry i had to say it. This no common sense 'engineer' out at work asked me and another guy to use a 15mm bolt to hold up this tiny RHS beam once. It's a bit of an in joke at work.

Not saying you have no common sense though, because you've got on here and asked people admitting you know very little instead of being arrogant and going balls and all into it and wrecking stuff. So thumbs up!

What's your mum look like?

Both wrong I'm afraid. The head of the bolt is 15mm The bolt itself is an M10.

Pete

[gldgti]

PM sent.

DB 105 goes with 10mm discs on a GLD (Diesel)
DB 128 goes with 12mm discs on a GLS (Petrol)

DB105 and DB128 are the same shape but the DB105 is thicker.

so

DB128 will work on a 10mm disc.

I think you can use either combination of disc/pad as I'm pretty sure the GLD and GLS calpiers are the same. Can someone please confirm this?

Pete

caliper offset is different, as disk offset is different.