Description
Custom made Brake Cable adjuster extension for 40’s and 50s Split window era Beetles with mechanical brakes (non Hydraulic). These custom spacers are machined out of 6061 Aluminum and designed specifically to fit the type one cable brakes (not juice brake cars parking brakes). Cable Brakes have a stigma behind them that they are unsafe, complex and unreliable. But the truth is, they can be (nearly) just as practical and functional when set up correctly and driven within thier intended parameters, but there is a lot of nuiances that that you hae to be mindful of to make them as good as the engineers designed them to be.
There are 2 versions, Cap style and Threaded.
The Cap Style functions just like VW extra spacer – just a Lot longer. It just slides over the adjuster itself effectively making it longer (cables shorter). Its a tight fit (on purpose), and you will have to tap it on with a hammer, and may have a hard time removing it so plan ahead. Its a tight fit on the adjuster so it will bite into it and then you can use the 32mm Hex part of CAP extension to turn/ adjust per factory manual vs trying to turn the 27mm skinny hex on the adjuster itself. You can sand/ grind some extra clearance onto the adjuster or the CAP as you see fit.
The Threaded Style incorporates the adjuster into the extension itself. This may be a good option for you as it eliminated the factor adjuster, as maybe yours is missing or damaged and finding replacement originals can prove difficult or expensive depending on where you live. the threads are the same as factory – M22 x 1.5. Again, these are designed to be extra long, so the will NEED to be cut to fit. Being aluminum, they are easily machined on a lathe but a grinder and belt sander could work if your surgical with such tools
There is adjustment of the cables built into the fundamental design of the system, as the cables stretch over time. When the factory adjuster runs out of threads, VW supplied a steel spacer to include inline that gave about another 15mm (1/2″) worth of adjustment before having to replace the cables. Nowadays there is limited amount of replacement cables, either reproduction, NOS VW, or good function used available and our cars are often a mix of OG vs whats broken vs whatever we can find to fix it given the time we have to find them.
Thats what happened to me at least. I got put in a situation where the cables I sourced were longer than they should be and I could not get all 4 adjusted correctly, even with the VW factory steel spacers on all 4 corners. Given the choice of finding and buying ANOTHER set of mystery cables and hope, fixing the cables i had somehow, flat out not driving the car, or selling it and making it someone elses problem; I decided to come up with my own simple solution which worked so well, I offer the parts here so you, too, can drive your car again – or just sell it as is- broken – to me 🙂
These Custom Extensions are milled out of Billet 6061 Aluminum and they are Extra Long on purpose so you can cut (or i should say you WILL have to cut) the length each individually to fit every specific wheel. This allows you to dial in the cable brake slack when installed, which allows the adjuster to have the most thread engagement (and thus stability) and the longest possible service life before replacement as cables stretch over time. The bonus is the bore hole in the AL adaptor makes the cable stay straight and stable under braking pressure, unlike the factory spacer which allows the cable sheath to side load and bend and twist before the cable itself moves and engages the brake shoes- this makes uneven braking that cannot be adjusted out or compensated for with factory adjustments.
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