Thread: Series Disk Brake Conversion?

depending on how they go about it sometimes it is sometimes it isnt...

Ive heard of (never seen the kit in person) a setup where you just unbolt the swivel housings complete and swap em for about a late 80's countys with discs. then swap the drive flange and half shafts from yours and put that all back together as apporpriate.. IF thats what they are doing, buy the kit but fit it yourself in reality its no more difficult than redoing a swivel seal.

personally I have no objection to spending top $ on brakes, IMHO they are the most important thing on the vehicle after the tyres.

G'day All, About 25 years ago some Gov't operated coal mines in NSW operated a fleet of Land Rovers underground, these had things that no ordinary L/r had i.e Disc brakes on the front and a very strong front diff housing (of which I have one) and at one stage about 20 years ago I did have a set of Disc brakes as well but I have long since sold that vehicle. Nothing from the 110/Range Rover front end Disc brakes will fit a Series Land Rover, it cannot be done by simply unbolting the swivel housings as they are NOT inter-changeable the PCD is different and obviously the flanges are larger on the Series Land Rover by more than (roughly) 1/2" overall, and having said that I don't know whether anyone has contemplated cutting the flanges off the respective housing's and rewelding them, that would require some considerable knowledge and know how and a jig to hold it all, I suppose the easy way would be to adapt the whole assembly to suit the leaf spring and that in itself has inherent problems, anyway just my tuppence worth and hope it hasn't dampened someone's enthuisiam cheers Dennis
PS Yes it was.

Hi Shorty
Ticonsole or similar?????? I did price a set yonks ago,was very expensive,from memory around 2 grand for the front(will also do the rear).Very professional looking,but the pads seemed too small.
If you havent got an original 6cyl,you are better off using the 6cyl drum setup,3" dia wide pads compared to 21/4" pads,much cheaper!!!!.
To do the conversion you need the backing plates,6cyl wheel cylinders and the 3" drums.It all simply swaps.
There was a conversion available in Perth which Ive been told about but never been able to get any info on,it involved valiant disc brakes and Rangie rotors.Apparently was a very good conversion,but no info to be found.
Andrew

As others have mentioned there have been a number of Series disc brake conversions, varying from uninspiring to quite good. But they all are very expensive for the amount of improvement over the original brakes in good condition.

What do disc brakes give over drums? Think about it for a moment - the actual stopping power is not necessarily different, but the apparently better stopping power is mostly due to the fact that with discs you must have a booster; which can be fitted with the existing drums for far less, and will reduce the pedal pressure by even more in most cases.

What else? Discs are more fade resistant than drums, but you can go a long way by fitting the wider front brakes from the six and going to 11" drums if we are talking about a SWB, again, for small change compared to a disc conversion.

So what is left? Discs are self adjusting, and more tolerant of oil, water etc, but is this worth the cost?

The Series brakes actually work quite well when in good condition although pedal pressures are high by modern standards on the LWB without booster. I would just upgrade the existing setup, fitting a booster if there is not already one.
John

John

John, every point you made, is why I asked. Even had non boosted, live disk brakes on a little sports car once,very good setup. If a disk conversion is available, and it is more effective than the standard boosted drum setup, then I will seek it out.
My rig is an S3 2.25 Ltr 5\79 build. Still have not actually measured the drum size yet.
I guess the very good boosted disk setup on my old F100, has spoilt me. And no, I am not impressed at all, by the British dual cylinder, dual adjustment setup. Too much to go wrong. Same with the drum hand brake, already working on the mounts for a disk hand brake mounted to the rear diff housing. Hmm, I think I need a test subject.

Okay, who's got a dead Series 3 rolling chassis, cheap, for Shorty?