The first goal with our 71 Super Beetle is making it stop. It has absolutely no brakes at this point. I’ve started rebuilding the brake system. I’ll go over the highlights as I through this process.
The previous owner had bought a new master cylinder so that was at least a start. So the first logical step was to remove the old. The cylinder is located just behind the driver side wheel underneath the car.
Here is the cylinder located in the middle to left of the picture.
Removing the lines and other stuff was pretty straightforward. Though I found an interesting fact when I pulled off the brake line to the rear brakes…
No wonder this had no brakes. Obviously I’ll be reinstalling new brake line.
After disconnecting the cylinder from the pedals the next step is removing the two bolts holding the cylinder in place.
Old versus new cylinder. My plan is to keep the old cylinder, rebuild it and keep for a spare. At this point I had started building my shopping list of parts I needed. So far my list includes:
- Brake switches from WolfsburgWest
- Stainless steel brake line kit from from JC Whitney
- Drum brake hardware kit and wheel cylinders from RockAuto
In my next installment I’ll cover taking off the drums and rebuilding the brakes. Thanks for coming by.
