cutting brake installation

[bkn01190]

I'm looking to install cutting brakes on my rail buggy. Never done it before. Can someone give me any advice on how to do it and the steps to the process? Thanks guys!

[Ol'fogasaurus]

A very complicated question that can be easy or a bit difficult. First, off-road only, dual purpose or sand only. Do you already have the brake assy? Each can make a difference to advice.

Single handle or dual handle? Uprite or lay down? Center mount or mounted to the outside rail. Also drum brake or disc brake. Did you know that if you do it right you can have the turning/cutting brake do your brake lights for you?

Just a start.

Lee

[bkn01190]

It gonna be off-road use only. Single handle, drum brakes. Center mount

[bajaherbie]

I set mine up this way.... up for left, down for right. For drums you need the 5/8" bore. Down side to a single is you can't use em both at the same time. I didn't have room for the duals between my seats.

Sent from my SM-G920R4 using Tapatalk

[Ol'fogasaurus]

A single handle on a rail isn’t that hard to do but as far as I know all of the single handle units have seen have an up-rite handle (up-rite and lay down units vary by a bend in the bottom of the handle). The hardest part is proper location and bending the brake line (and flairs) from the MC to the turning brake cylinders and the lines from the turning brake assembly to each of the slave cylinders on the drum brakes.

(I’m going very basic as I don’t know where you are at building things) The first thing is to figure out where you want the turning brake unit to sit. You have to be sure that the handle’s height isn’t in the way of your grabbing the shifter when in an emergency situation or interfering with the shifter in the three rear positions (reverse, second and fourth) plus the handles not being too tall for your shifter. Sometimes something has to change such as height of the shifter or turning brake handles.

The cylinder assembly can be mounted either with the cylinders sitting facing forward or to the rear as it is the order of the connections to the brakes which makes the difference. Traditionally pulling on the handle (the lower bib) engages the left brake and pushing on the handle engages the right side brake but there is nothing to say that it has to be that way and you can get use to either way.

Mounting the turning brake assembly can be done by adding a plate across both of the center tubes on your rail or by clamping it to the center tube in the center of your rail (they can come either way. Again, handle height is important.

On the last rail I worked on it was like Herbies in as much as it was too tight to go between the seats so the handle was put on the outside rail (at least for now).

If you are using a stock VW pedal assembly that stop light switch is there for you to use. If you are using an aftermarket pedal assembly then the provisions for it usually is missing. There are two options you have (the brake lite is important): one idea being to look on line for the assembly that some places sell. I looked but couldn’t find it right now… it is hard to find; with the second being to make your own.

I used a pair of stock VW brass brake T-ee’s and put the light switch in the 90° hole. One for each brake line from the turning brake cylinder. VWs have two styles of T-ee’s: one with three ports and one with two ports. Use the one with 3 ports and the mounting screw that goes with it to mount into the stock mount on the torsion housing. This is for an IRS, I don’t know what the swing axle looks like.

http://www.shoptalkforums.com/viewtopic ... &start=360

Look about half way down the page and you can see what I am talking about. This way, when you apply the foot brake both lights come on but if you pull on a turning brake handle the brake light on the side that is affected by the application of the turning brake comes on.

One other thing! With two handles you can pull on both handles , not too hard, and cause enough friction that the open diff will turn into something like a locker so that both wheels pull together rather than the outside wheel in a turn or the one with the least amount of traction turning. One a single handle you can’t do this but to get the same effect you can lightly put your foot on the brake pedal. That is assuming it isn’t busy doing something else like the “dance of death” where is it trying to do both the clutch and the brake pedal at the same time while your other foot is working the “loud” pedal.

Lee

Addition. I bent up hard lines on my buggy but some guys are using the soft semi-transparent lines you can get. Makes things easier but I am very suspect about them as they can get brittle over time like all plastics in the sun.

[bkn01190]

Thanks alot this was very helpful and indeed I will now use a two lever instead!

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I'm at the dunes now so before you get too far in your decisions I can take some pixs of the narrow short back rail of how it was done either tonight or tomorrow if that will help.

Lee

[bkn01190]

I'm at the dunes now so before you get too far in your decisions I can take some pixs of the narrow short back rail of how it was done either tonight or tomorrow if that will help.

Lee

Thanks thank would help alot

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I've got a bunch of pictures taken and loaded onto Photobucket but it is trying it's best to discourage me from using the site. I can only download one picture to a word file before it locks up. Part of it is because of what seems to be trying to get me to pay the 99 cents per month to not have to look at the ads which just lock up my computer. Being on a slow air card just plays havoc trying to do this kind of stuff. It may be that I have to do a start then upgrade a pix every so often. I think I have something like 10 pictures for you.



If it shows it is picture #1. Sorry about the blurred look but after taking several pictures of the rail I think the overhead lights are affecting the camera to focus as they all have come out like this.



This shows the outboard mounting of the turning brake assembly. The handle is straight up and down and the upper tube on the rail flairs out a bit so things aren't as tight as it looks.

There are three ladies in the group that will be driving this. They all have driven rails before but the turning brake was not like this (next pair of pictures) but all three can get in, get out and work the turning brake with out a problem.

More later on when Photobucket will allow it.

Lee

[Ol'fogasaurus]

I'm at the dunes now so before you get too far in your decisions I can take some pixs of the narrow short back rail of how it was done either tonight or tomorrow if that will help.

Lee

Thanks thank would help alot

BKN, I am on an aircard and those two pictures cost me a full gig of data usage. Where I am at now seems to be worse than at home but even there it seems to be getting worse.

Since Doc converted and you can't post off you computer at least as far as I can tell, I am going to have to either stop posting pictures or just stop. BKN, if you PM me an email address I will send the other stuff to you. Sorry guys but this it getting just too expensive and the wife is in attack mode.

Lee

[cbeck]

Your set up smells like butt. My computer will load on here after I resize them. Tell leatherneck I will get some pics tomorrow.

[Ol'fogasaurus]

Your set up smells like butt. My computer will load on here after I resize them. Tell leatherneck I will get some pics tomorrow.

The pictures are already edited and downsized to 640 X 480 but it seems mostly Photobucket is where the problem is. I can get them there but not a url from there w/o their site locking up. Another part is the air cards are so slow but that is something I have to live with I guess.

Being we are on the go a lot a hard line just doesn't work for us. To be honest, I have always had problems with computers going back into the late 70's. Why I have so many problems... even the computer techs can't figure it out but they do agree that they are honest problems not my imagination. Even my computer protection, and I have used several reputable companies, can't figure it out. I think it is my magnatic personality.

[ninelives17]

Here is my dual handle setup in my Baja. Convenient location below shifter and I can still access parking brake without too much trouble.

[ninelives17]

PicsArt_11-07-07.27.13.jpg

[ninelives17]

PicsArt_11-07-07.35.44.jpg

Here they are with seats and a body.