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Thread: County brakes

  1. #1
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    County brakes

    I need some help working out what is wrong with my dad's county brakes.
    It has about 2 inches of pedal travel and stops like crap. He has reconditioned the master cylinder and the rear brake cylinders. I don't know what is left to do..... Have considered that the brake failure switching thing might cause it but don't know enough about it to check.

    Any pointers or suggestions would be appreciated.


    Cheers.
    84' 120" ute - 3.9 isuzu.

  2. #2
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    mines in a similar situation at the moment. it's currently in the garage and i'll let you know the outcome.

    mines always been a poor stopper but its got worse since i replaced one of the rear brake cylinders.

  3. #3
    JDNSW's Avatar
    JDNSW is offline RoverLord Silver Subscriber
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    Brakes on mine have always been good except when the rear brakes need adjusting. Some suggestions:-

    1. Check adjustment of the rear brakes, following the manual instructions - adjust each shoe up until the wheel locks then back off until free, repeat with other shoe. Apply brakes to centre the shoes then repeat. If there is too much free play on the rear brakes, the equaliser will hit the limit and the rear brakes will not apply.

    2. Check that you do not have a seized front wheel cylinder - look at the pad as the brakes are applied and check they all move. Loose front wheel bearings or a warped disc (usually a warped disc gives other symptoms) will knock back the pads and may result in so much travel that the distribution valve hits its limit and the front brakes are not working.

    3. You can check where the lost motion is by clamping off the brake hoses one at a time, and this may point to remaining air that needs to be bled out. I have never had any problem bleeding these brakes, but others have.

    4. Check that the vacuum pump is working - apply the brake hard several times while stopped with the engine off, to use any remaining vacuum, then hold the brake pedal hard down. When you start the engine, the pedal should move down as vacuum becomes available. If it does not you could have a failed vacuum pump, a vacuum leak either in the line or the booster or a blocked vent on the booster.

    Hope some of these suggestions help.
    John
    John

    JDNSW
    1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
    1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol

  4. #4
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    jd...i couldnt of put that any better.........


    wovenrovings.....did you bleed and adjust the brakes after you changed the wheel cylinder....?

  5. #5
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    The rear drum brakes were always a weak point on the County. I owned mine for about 200,000km, replaced the front pads a few times but never the rear shoes, probably because they never worked.

    You can do a rear disc brake conversion, definitely worthwhile IMHO.

  6. #6
    JDNSW's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Frenchie
    The rear drum brakes were always a weak point on the County. I owned mine for about 200,000km, replaced the front pads a few times but never the rear shoes, probably because they never worked.

    You can do a rear disc brake conversion, definitely worthwhile IMHO.
    Interesting comment - Mine is now approaching 420,000km, have replaced the rear brake shoes twice and the pads once, never had a complaint about the brakes, although you do have to adjust the rears regularly (I do it every service). While I can see the advantage of changing to the rear discs from the maintenance point of view, I can't see the point as far as effectiveness goes.
    John
    John

    JDNSW
    1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
    1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol

  7. #7
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    check the drum for wear. My previous county had oversize shoes and a worn drum that caused the worm drive to over extend and slip over.

    I've converted to a defender axle with discs.
    L322 tdv8 poverty pack - wow
    Perentie 110 wagon ARN 49-107 (probably selling) turbo, p/steer, RFSV front axle/trutrack, HF, gullwing windows, double jerrys etc.
    Perentie 110 wagon ARN 48-699 another project
    Track Trailer ARN 200-117
    REMLR # 137

  8. #8
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    Well I will check the front wheel bearing adjustment and the calipers to see if they are sticking.

    I see how the valve works now but how do you go bleeding the brakes with it there? Doesn't it block off the line as soon as bit fluid goes through? I have bled the brakes and not had anything like that happen so does that mean it isn't working?

    Thanks for the suggestions.

    WR.
    84' 120" ute - 3.9 isuzu.

  9. #9
    JDNSW's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by wovenrovings
    Well I will check the front wheel bearing adjustment and the calipers to see if they are sticking.

    I see how the valve works now but how do you go bleeding the brakes with it there? Doesn't it block off the line as soon as bit fluid goes through? I have bled the brakes and not had anything like that happen so does that mean it isn't working?

    Thanks for the suggestions.

    WR.
    The shuttle will shut off the circuit with the open bleeder only after it has got a pressure difference - when the circuit not being bled starts to build up pressure - and that is as far as you push the pedal when bleeding anyway. It must have a centring spring so it is in the centre with no pressure in either circuit, which will be the situation when pressure bleeding (the actual pressure involved with pressure bleeding is miniscule compared to the operating pressure in brake circuits).
    John

    JDNSW
    1986 110 County 3.9 diesel
    1970 2a 109 2.25 petrol

  10. #10
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    Continueing on with this. Does anyone know if the master cylinder was change on Countys at the end of 1985? Was discussing the problem with my dad and his 1986 county has excellent brakes but the 1985 one you simply can't lock the brakes on the bitumen (early ABS? ) Have now discovered that my 1984 ute behaves exactly the same. The 1986 I had previously also had good brakes. Just made me wonder what changed. Brake booster is working on all of them. Both the older ones have worn front disks but good pads. Have checked the points in previous posts. Nothing there.

    Have noticed on this forum too, that some people say their county brakes are poor and some say they are good so just wondered if there was some common cause.

    WR
    84' 120" ute - 3.9 isuzu.

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