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Holy dooly, i can't possibly think why anyone would want to purposely block off a brake line just because of a leaky brake cylinder.... One would assume one would just fix the leak.. No???
But then again, some mothers do have em...
will keep this in mind when i check for blockages when i'm testing the line...
Thanks :)
It seems a lot of people think brakes are an option. I have purchased a few cars over the years that have had the rear brakes disabled by previous owners. None of these were farm hacks or burnout cars.
Hi all,
So i eventually got around to fixing the brakes...
So, last Sunday replaced all 3 flexible hoses... low and behold, surprise surprise, fluid nlw coming out at the rear cylinderz... the old hose had a total blockage...
So blead them all up, peddle felt good, yep, no worries all good for Monday morning drive to work..
Nope.... no peddle monday morning...
SO....... back down to MR Automotive to.get front cylinder seal kits new rear cylinders as these leaked now that fluid was getting to them.
So come back, replace the rears, put a new.kit through the front.
Bleed time... yep bleeds up.. now the front driverside is leaking.....
So, Tuesday go down and got driverside cylinders.
Put on, bleed and finally a half decent peddle. Then couldn't get the adjustment right.
Tearing hear out at this stage.
After sleaking with a guy from MR Automotive, found what needed to be done...
So after a while of adjustin and bleeding finally got brakes...
and man o man, I've never felt brakes so.good in.a landrover lol
Great news! Nothing better than decent brakes. Nothing worse than dodgey ones...:D
I'm jealous!! I've been trying for a while to get Willys brakes in good nick and can't quite get there.. Sounds like you put in the effort and got the reward, good stuff!
If anyone ever tells me again that "you can't pull up quick in a series rover" I think i'm gunna have to show them different. LOL
I can pull up pretty bloody quick now lol
So good to have good brakes.
I had an experience with brakes as well, so don't feel too badly.
Does your Series pull to one side under heavy braking? I nearly ended up in the wrong lane the other day when I had to drop anchors :angel:
It use to, but not now. I can let go of the steering wheel and hit the picks, and she pulls up straight.
The best feeling in the world after some of the close calls i had before fixing the brakes....
And ending up in the spoon drain on the side of the road was one of them lol
I had still heaps of meat on the drums and shoes all round.
All i had to change was the cylinders. I did both rears, and drivers side front, but left the passenger front at this stage as they seem to work fine.
Replaced all the flex hoses, so the one rear and the two fronts.
I pumped through about 6 litres of fluid...... Boy, that sucked...
Did this for a few reasons... the main one was, i couldn't get a peddle after the repairs... Didn't realise what was involved in setting up the brake adjustment....
Spoke to the guys at M R Automotive in Redcliffe, brisbane and they were really helpful. Actually, they have always been really willing to help out. Even tho i've only ever bought the parts off them and done my own mechanical work. They never leave me guessing. If i've had a question, they have always put me onto someone at the shop who knows about the specific question i had. I can't speak highly enough to be honest.
The young bloke there pretty much told me that what they do on the ol series girls is adjust the brakes up hard from the adjusters. Take for a quick drive round the bloke hitting the brakes hard a few times.
Come back to workshop, adjust brakes again by backing off one or two clicks, then re adjusting up to hard again. Bleed the brakes. Then take out for a test drive again. Put the brakes on hard once again a few times. Back to work shop again and repeat process.
Each time, noticing how the peddle feels after adjusting and bleeding.
The aim is to centre the shoes. The young bloke said the worst case he ever had, took him ALL DAY to get the brakes right on one of the series they had in the workshop.
He said that normally he would expect to have to do it at least 3 to 4 times before getting good brakes.
It took me 3 times to get good adjustment.
I had spent that much time over a period of 3 days just on my brakes, that i got to know every inch of them. So when it came to adjusting them, i could feel what was going on inside of them just by a combination of adjusting, turning the wheel, bleeding etc that i could figure out what was needed. So thats prob why it only took me 3 attempts i'm guessing. Or it could be that i was just lucky lol.
Wow, that was long...
But hopefully some good info for others
:)
Thank you for that extremely useful advice Kime!
Two other extremely useful tips; one I have read about and one that I have used.
1. Loosening the wheel cylinder fasteners allows the cylinder to move, which helps the shoes to centralise in the drum. This applies to twin-leading and leading-trailing setups. In the case of brake shoe pivots, which are bolted to the backing plate, the same procedure applies. Someone on the Series 1 forum tried this with great success. Of course the pivot/wheel cylinder should be re-secured in its new position, probably whilst the pedal is held down firmly.
2. Stamping on the pedal as hard as possible, when trying to get fluid to go through the system when bleeding, always works. I actually read this in the 2A driver's handbook which said to "... depress the pedal smartly..." and it was confirmed by a local mechanic who used to work on Land Rovers. Something I have done on 2A's with excellent results.
Of course none of the above can rectify worn drums; dodgy hydraulics, etc. Everything must be in top condition,
Cheers Charlie
I'll have to give that a go myself.. I've been trying on and off for about a month to get Willy's brakes working properly. I know how good series brakes can be but I havn't been able to actually get them to that stage! Some good tips to follow there, cheers Charlie and Kime!