[Vwdiesel] Rabbit Progress

[Gavrik Peterson]

By this time I thought that the CV joint mystery would be solved and I
would, with a somewhat swelled head, present the list with the
complete answer.  No such luck.  Nothing that I have done so far has
cleared this up.  To get thing going, I reinstalled that pitted outer
cv joint on the driveshaft, and went with it.  I have become somewhat
obsessed about figuring this out.  On Monday I am going to try to find
a Lobro office in the US and see what they have to say.

The Rabbit drives!  But there is so much air in the brake lines that
it would be dangerous to really try to go anywhere.  All I have to do
now, is rebuild the rear brakes and bleed the system.  Last night I
got into this and I noticed that the brake shoes that I have look so
cheap that I don't want to use them.

Now the questions:

(1) If I want good quality brake shoes what manufacturer should I ask
    for?

(2) The push-bar shows some wear (around 200k miles on it).  Is it
    worthwhile to get the kit that contains a new push-bar, wedge,
    springs and clips?

I spent over an hour out in the garage contemplating how the rear
brakes work, particularly how the self-adjusting wedge works.  I ended
up making a drawing to help my understanding.  I figure out that the
length of the slot in the push-bar that the parking brake lever goes
through determines the clearance between the shoes and drum.  Wear in
this slot could change this clearance.  Does anyone have a new
push-bar so that they could measure this dimension?


--  Gavrik