Thread: Land Rover + Brakes + engineering brake test =???

Mate, if your brakes are bled, adjusted and not covered in oil you'll be fine.

Mine passed no worries and I discovered later that one wheel cylinder was frozen!

A big part of the engineering check (other than the soundness of the modification) is the appearance - if the vehicle looks to be in good repair, not leaky and covered in crap, starts and runs without dramas and everything works properly then you'll be fine. If there are obvious issues with the car then the dude is going to look a bit closer at the mods.

Originally Posted by COFFEY76

So as part of getting the Land rover engineered and registered it will need to complete an engineering brake test...so like all the electronic gadgets plugged to the windscreen...


Basically wanted to know what my chances are of passing?
i mean like specification wise, obviously it comes down to bleeding and booster working (which it does)

Only thing im worried about is that i discovered my front axle on my 109" SIIA is acctually a short wheelbase axle...what is the difference in brake sizes?

just looking for reasurance in my braking capabilities.

Swb axle has 10" brakes - this is, in fact, an important difference if it really does have 10" brakes instead of 11".

If you do indeed have the correct brakes, it may help to know that in NSW part of the annual test is a braking test, and mine has never had any problems meeting the specifications for that date.

John

It's not just the diameter that's different. The 11" brake drums have a 2.25" width as opposed to 1.5" for the 10". They also have two wheel cylinders per side. The 10" were pretty inadequate even on the SWB. Leaving aside the test I reckon 11" brakes with something like a VH40 remote servo unit would make for a much safer vehicle.

cheers,

John

Originally Posted by Bunjeel

It's not just the diameter that's different. The 11" brake drums have a 2.25" width as opposed to 1.5" for the 10". They also have two wheel cylinders per side. The 10" were pretty inadequate even on the SWB. Leaving aside the test I reckon 11" brakes with something like a VH40 remote servo unit would make for a much safer vehicle.

cheers,
John

In fact there are two types of 11" brakes, 2 1/2" and 3" wide shoes. Both are double leading shoes and the 3" type from Suffix G onwards had the vacuum booster mounted on the pedal box. This is by far the better system although the boost from the Girling unit is not as great as other possible options. I used a PBR booster and master cylinder from a drum brake Holden LC Torana. It merely needed a spacer onto the LR pedal box and the brake balance valve from another vehicle, I used a Holden/PBR type but a Late SIII dual circuit type will also suit. (You also need the front RHS mudguard that has the extra relief for the master cylinder. This the the type on all wide headlamp models and some of the other late crosseyed SIIa)

What you end up with is a dual circuit system with significant stopping power, better than any other drum brake Land Rover you could drive.

Originally Posted by Bunjeel

It's not just the diameter that's different. The 11" brake drums have a 2.25" width as opposed to 1.5" for the 10". They also have two wheel cylinders per side. The 10" were pretty inadequate even on the SWB. Leaving aside the test I reckon 11" brakes with something like a VH40 remote servo unit would make for a much safer vehicle.

cheers,

John

The 11" brakes only have two leading shoe (two wheel cylinders) on the front brakes. A worthwhile upgrade to any swb is the full lwb braking system, although the 10" brakes are adequate (if not brilliant) if properly maintained. The last swb I owned (1965) had a remote servo unit and the brakes were superior to most contemporary cars, especially Holdens, which were pretty inadequate until the introduction of discs.

There is often confusion about what constitutes good brakes. The criteria often used is pedal pressure - which is not necessarily a factor once the pressure required is low enough that braking close to locking can be applied by a normal driver.

The only way in which the 10" brakes really fall short is in that the smaller size makes brake fade more likely. As with nearly all drum brakes regular adjustment is necessary. Changing to the lwb system will give lower pedal pressure and much greater fade resistance, but at the expense of needing more frequent adjustment.

John

i have the two wheel cylinders on the front of our 109 but only one cylinder on the rear....


sorry for the quick hyjack but still sort of on topic...can anyone tell me what machining tolerances are on the drums? we are not sure whether to get ours machined or just buy new.....the fronts don't seem to bad one of the backs looks stuffed and I don't think that can be done anyway

Brake drum tollerance on all series is .030 from standard 9"or 10"

Most brake machining places." due to all the saftey laws now days"
Will tell you if they will do them.

Ok so my front brakes are in fact LWB, they have dual wheel cylinders.
but my front axle is a short wheel base version (found out after i bought $900 worth of new springs and the LWB U bolts didnt fit.)

all part of the fun of discovering your cars forgotten past.

I feel pretty confident now about the brake test.