Thread: Bleeding 11" brakes

Hello All,

As an alternative to Red90's suggestion to Cap's post; could someone please post up a photograph of the front and rear brakes without the drums to show how the springs and shoes SHOULD be fitted CORRECTLY.. It seems that this is some information that the Operator's Manuals and YouTube clips consistently miss.

For example, one manual has the brake wheel cylinders for the front axle located at 9 and 3 o'clock. Each of the Land Rovers I have owned have the brake wheel cylinders located at 12 and 6 o'clock. I lost confidence in the manual after that.

There was a good UK site that explains trailing and leading edge brakes. Once I find the site again I will post it up.... found it ... Accessed March 26, 2019 from Land Rover FAQ - 109 rear brakes

Yes - I have the same issue Cap.

Kind regards
Lionel

Do you have a compression barrel master cylinder or centre valve master cylinder? The method of bleeding is different for each. Is your master cylinder horizontal or inclined from horizontal? If inclined, you can get a persistent air bubble in the master cylinder that is difficult to bleed out. A pressure weed sprayer makes a good pressure bleeder.

Aaron

Perhaps lets start by being clear about what is on your vehicle. Your signature says it is an 88". You are talking about 11" brakes, which don't come on an 88. There are different brakes fro different models and years, so you need to get specific as to what is on there and what it came from.

Terriann's page shows rear shoes that are used on long wheelbase Series 3 and Defenders. It, unfortunately does not clarify things because shoes you buy today have an even amount of friction material on them.

Try here for those: LWB (Series 3 through to 1993) Rear Drum Setup

Front brakes should be different, but you need to clarify what you have.

I do have an 88, but i placed the entire 1967 109 2.25 petrol 11" system (master cylinder incl) into the 88. So i havent mixed parts and was careful not to make any changes. New cylinders and pads are in.

Yesterday i removed both wheels and drums, checked shoes and snails and all adjusted fine. I can tighten snails to lock drums. Having the snails to a point where the pads start to drag made a bit of difference in the pedal, but still not right. Two to three pumps brings it as it should be, a firm pedal with about 1/3 pedal travel down. At the moment the pedal almost reaches the floor (full sweep) at first, second pump it goes 1/2 way the third 1/3 way.





Ill post more pics up soon.

correct pedal adjustment makes a big difference as well so make sure you have that set as it should be

my 88 has the later and larger bore master cyl, 109 4cyl front brakes and std 88 rear brakes

it has better brakes than the 130 and pulls up in no time flat.

and luckily bleeds effortlessly on my inclined driveway, nose up

when i did the brakes up i went through 3 sets of shoes till i got a set that actually worked properly and were the right shape.

Is the pedal freeplay set appropriately? Try adjusting out all freeplay until the master cylinder has passed the return port. Then try pumping up the brakes. They should lock up with a hard pedal. Then back off the pushrod until the brakes are released.

Aaron

Ahave the pedal return spring fitted, and there is almost no free play on either the pedal pivot or the trunion that carries the pushrod. And that the pedal stop is correctly adjusted. Any of these will reduce the pushrod travel relative to the pedal.