Thread: S2A : dragging the brakes into the 2st Century

Originally Posted by jakeslouw

Now I'm lost. Are you referring to the conversion done by Cookey?
There is no way I could get one of those or even a Zeus kit into ZA for the price I'm paying for a set of Disco1 axles with control arms and coils and a second-hand S3 R6 or early One Ten pedal box/MC/booster set.

I have a Rover axle front & rear: throwing disk brakes onto those would be like gilding a turd.

No the problem of Disco, Rangie or Defender swivels is that the track rod is behind the axle while the drag link is at the front, but only one housing has a lever to connect to the drag link. On a Right Hand Drive the left hand swivel has the lever. On left hand drives its the right.

If you can get one of each swivel housing, you can move the track rod to the front and connect the drag link to one end of the track rod.

This way you use standard Disco/Rangie brakes, dont need to do a SOA and don't have any problems with the leaf spring pack.

OK just an update on this:

I've started the disk brake conversion on the front axle.

I had to source a new set of hubs as the press-fit studs on mine were a not installed properly and nicely bodged by a previous owner.

The new hubs have nice studs and we have now just trimmed a smidge off the rear of the stud heads so that the defender disk rotors can clear.

The caliper brackets have been measured and drawn up in CAD and I'm just waiting for the engineering shop to get a part from Europe for their wizzy fancy water cutter, then those will be cut and fitted.

Then its early defender calipers, as well as a defender brake pedal, pedal box, master cylinder and booster.

We'll split the brake circuits into front/back and then test to see if we need a biasing valve.

I'll try and post pix once they come in.

Approx cost will be under USD$700 for the whole front end conversion.

If you use the 6cyl pedal box and booster you can use the late SIII/Stage one master cylinder which has dual circuits already, but you may find that you need to reduce the piston size of the rear if you use the original drums rear.

A larger booster will give better pedal.

Yeah we just found it easier and cheaper to source an early Defender pedal box, MC and booster. The S3 stuff over here is pretty much all shagged.

The bigger Defender booster is a bonus.

Just hope we don't discover all the weak points on the chassis on the first test run.

Defender master cylinder is the same as the late SIII and in respect of the pedal box, whatever you can get.

The Army Perentie 110 oer here use an Aussie Ford Falcon/PBR master cylinder and IIRC a dual diaphragm booster on the 110 pedal box.

I see you have started the conversion..... BUT

I have a '56 S1 that can lock all 4 wheels on bitumen.

After that it is tyres that do the gripping.

All I did was get all the air out of the system and adjust most of the clearance out of the shoe adjustment.

The most dramatic improvement came from making sure the curve of the shoes matched the curve of the drum. most brake shops seem to set the shoe diameter so that they contact the drum at the centre of the lining first. Pedal pressure then flexes the shoe so that it contacts the full surface.
The result of this is a springy brake pedal and less brake force.

OK, I have an inline vac booster (PBR VH40) but I could lock the wheels before I fitted that with a harder pedal push.

I know disks are better, you don't have fade problems, but I don't go rallying in the S1

Cheers,
Terry

I have the PBR booster in my Series IIA and my brake problem is that I have to be gentle with the pedal to stop locking wheels up. This is by far the simplest and cheapest way to get city-spec brakes on a Landie. Also, the brakes still work fine when I tow my 800 kg boat.

I think most people agree that the drum brakes are completely adequate; however; the maintenance on them is one thing I loathe. Frequent adjusting; having to pull them apart to clean them of dust; wheel cylinders that never seem to last long; shoes that take forever to bed-in to the shape of the drum; and of course trying to dry the flaming things after wading!

And then I think of my Rovers with all disc brakes. New pads once in a blue-moon; self cleaning; self adjusting; they like having a bath in deep puddles; caliper seals that never seem to need replacing!

Full marks to anyone who is prepared to try retro-fitting discs, as long as it is done safely and I await the test results with great interest,

Cheers Charlie