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Well, you've gotten all your parts cleaned up and laid out in some kind of order by now. You also left one side assembled, right? Good! Now you'll have something to go by when putting the whole mess back together. Make sure all your new parts match the old ones in size and number & shape of holes, etc. When you have determined that your parts are correct, you can start putting your brakes back together.
If you had to get new wheel cylinders, install them now. Remove the old T-shaped plungers from the original cylinder (there's one plunger on each end) and push them into the new cylinder. You may want to thread the brake line on the new cylinder before actually bolting it on the backing plate. Then bolt in the new wheel cylinder then tighten the brake line snugly with the flare-nut wrench. Now for the brake shoes…
There are three small flat pads on each side of the backing plate - at the one, three, five, seven, nine, and eleven o'clock positions. Smear a small amount of grease on each of these pads. Now clean the grease off your hands. Remember the time you had getting the spring and pin off that held the brake shoes on the backing plate? Well, you'll have even a better time putting them back on. Get one of the brake shoes (either front or back - take note, as they aren't the same) and hold it against the backing plate, against the flat spots. Look at the other side to see how the shoe fits into everything if you are not sure. While holding the shoe into position, fish the pin through the hole from behind the backing plate and hold it there with a finger. Stand a spring up on one end and put the retaining washer on top of it. Get your regular pliers and open them up to the wide position. Grab the spring and retainer with the pliers, line up the slot in the retainer with the end of the pin, push in hard, and twist at the same time to lock the spring and pin together. If you're lucky, you'll hit it on the first try. If at first you don't succeed, try and try again. This is probably the most frustrating part of putting this stuff back together. Hang in there! When you have succeeded, make sure the bottom tab of the brake shoe is inserted in the slotted head of the brake adjuster and the piston plungers in the wheel cylinders are inserted properly in the shoes. Again, if in doubt, look at the other side to see how it is done.
Note about parking brakes: short of going through a "live" demonstration on how to put the parking brake brackets back on the brake shoes, the best I can tell you on paper is to use the assembled side as a reference. You'll have to do some finagling between the parking brake bracket and the shoe it inserts into to get it back on. It's no rocket science, but I stress the importance of leaving one side assembled while repairing the other. If you would like, I could easily do a demonstration if someone needs a brake job and would like to have the club join in on a workshop.
Anyhow, you have the parking brake bracket back on the remaining shoe and the shoe installed on the backing plate. Now put the remaining springs back in their respective holes, using the other side as a guide. After everything is assembled and buttoned down, screw the adjusters all the way down so the drum will easily slide on. You'll have to readjust the brakes anyhow after the wheels are back on. Refer to the first tech tip for this one.
If you have new drums, there will be a protective coating on the inside surface of the drum. This stuff must be removed before you put the drum on, or you'll be doing the brake job all over again. Take your lacquer thinner and soak a few paper towels with it. Wipe, wipe, and wipe some more. If yo' mama didn't teach you to wipe, this will be your lesson. Soak some more paper towels and wipe some more if you need to. Get all traces of that junk off the inside. If you chose to get your old drums machined, you'll still need to wipe to make sure there are no greasy fingerprints or other stuff on the inside surface as well as the hub on the front drums, as there will be plenty of metal shavings and dirt left in there. You don't want that mess in your bearings. Clean is the key here!
For rear drums, you are now ready to slide the drum on the axle. Don't try to tighten the big axle nut yet. Just get it kind of snug so you can put the car on the ground. As for the front drums, do the following. First, wipe all the old remaining grease off the spindle. Then get into your tub of grease and dip out a slab. Goo that stuff into the hub and coat everything with a thick layer of grease. Too much is not enough here. Also, coat the spindle liberally with new grease. Take out a slab of grease and pack it into the bearings. Force the grease inside the bearing with your fingers and then coat it well with grease. Turn the drum over to put the inboard bearing in. After that, tap the seal in place. Turn the drum over and plop the outboard bearing in. Now you are ready to slide the front drums on. Make sure you didn't get any grease on the inside surface before you go putting the drum on. While holding the outboard bearing in place, slide the drum on over the spindle. Next goes the big washer over the stub of the spindle, and then the nut. Tighten the nut all the way down tight and then loosen. You don't want the bearings to be preloaded at all, but you don't want them too loose, either. What I do in this situation is to go ahead and bolt the wheel back on snugly and then adjust the play in the bearings. Rock the wheel back and forth lightly. If you have the preload just right, you'll hear what sounds like a light tapping sound. It shouldn't be a heavy clunking sound. If it is, you have the nut too loose. If the nut is too tight, you won't have any sound at all, and the wheel may even be hard to rotate. When you have it right, tighten the allen screw down fairly tight. Tap the dust cap back on. If you did the driver's front brake first, don't forget to fish the speedometer cable back through the hole and put a cotter pin through the cable end.
Great! You've finished one side and seem pretty happy with it. Now do the other side just as you did the first one. After you've finished, put the wheels back on and set your beloved VW on the ground. Tighten the wheel lugbolts to 90 ft-lbs using a torque wrench.
There are two reasons for this.
First, having an even 90 ft-lbs all the way around minimizes the chance of the drums warping. With the sensitive front ends on Beetles and especially Super Beetles, this would spell bad news if you had warped drums.
Second, if you have a flat, it will be so much easier to change when the wheels are torqued properly. I personally do not recommend using an impact wrench to tighten the lugbolts since it would be too easy to overtighten them.
As for the rear axle nuts, get your big breakover bar with the 36mm socket on the end and get it as tight as you can. Use a long cheater pipe to fit over the handle if you need to. The nut needs to be tightened to 250 ft-lbs. If you make the total length of the breakover bar about 3 feet long, this will be easier to do. Put a brick under the tire so the car won't roll.
Now adjust the brakes as I've covered in the previous articles, and go clean yourself up and find the nearest German festival and have a bratwurst burger!
Your VW maniac and Tech Specialist,
Mike C.