Series 3 brakes not working

[Defender=1st]

Gday everyone well the series 3 almost killed me last night when the brakes stopped working while driving home at about 3 in the morning, traffic light went red so pushed the pedal down and nothing happened...starting to panic i pumped the pedal quickly which gave me a bit of braking but ended up using the hand brake to stop..any ideas what could cause this ? its bucketing down hear today, so cant work on it yet..but i did check the brake fluid level which is fine..so if anybody has any ideas on the problem it would be awesome to hear back..so when the rain stops i know what iam looking for.
Cheers Adrian

[JDNSW]

More information needed.

Did the pedal go to the floor? If this happened suddenly it is almost certainly hydraulics - if the fluid has not gone down it has to be the master cylinder.

But if the pedal did not go to the floor, and if conditions were wet, it is almost certainly just wet brakes. People who have only driven with discs have either forgotten or never knew that wet drum brakes do not work. Usually just rain, no matter how heavy, will not wet them, but driving through even just a few inches of water is likely to. The procedure is to gently apply the brakes for several hundred yards until they dry out and start to bite after going through water.

Other possibilities could be that an adjuster has slipped (have to be worn to do that) or (unlikely) a lining has come loose, or a severe oil leak onto the brakes on one wheel, although this is not normally sudden, and you would still have brakes on the other wheels - all leaking at once is not believable.

If it has power assisted brakes, the problem could be loss of vacuum (but this would only increase pedal pressure, unlikely to be interpreted as loss of brakes), which is almost certainly due to a hose leaking or off, but could be the diaphragm on the booster has gone. If it is a diesel with a butterfly on the intake to provide vacuum, then it could be the linkage to this is off.

John

[djam1]

What year Series 3 does it have dual circuit or single circuit brakes??

[Defender=1st]

Thanks for the replys guys..its a 1975 series 3
the pedal did go right to the floor but didnt have much pressure and would only get pressure if you constantly pumped it..

[djam1]

They changed to dual circuit brakes in 1975 so I presume yours has dual circuit brakes.
Sounds like a master cylinder to me get yours resleeved with a stainless steel sleeve.
It will last for ages that way parts you buy for series brakes are generally poor quality and wont last long.

[Blknight.aus]

master cylinder bypassing internally OR a brake snail cam has flicked and you need to pump the brakes up to get the brakes to engage...

[paulthepilot_5]

Sounds like a snail cam, if you were still able to get brakes after pumping it a bit and not loosing fluid. Try pumping the brakes till you get a solid pedal, when you take you're foot off the brake you should be able to hear the offending shoes retracting for a few seconds with a creaky spring sort of noise.

Paul

[Aaron IIA]

It could be a piece of crud under the recuperating seal, or a failing recuperating seal. It might be a good idea to pull appart and inspect the master cylinder.

Aaron.

[paulthepilot_5]

Any news on what the problem is yet?

Cheers
Paul