Freelander rear disc conversion

Thoughts?
Something like this

Nice, have you more pic's, been thinking of this myself, shoes on mine are pretty fresh and adjusted and handbrake is crap, also feels like most of braking is on front end. I know people always point out in was never made with disks on the rear.. but rally cars have been having conversions for years, the defender was drum, yet the discos and later defenders had disks. as long as the balance is properly setup shouldn't be any issues.

Solution for a problem that never existed...

There's many solutions like that! With the size of the wheels it's quite easy to get them hot. Plus I'm looking at a decent power increase.

Are you going to fit a larger master cylinder to compensate for the increased capacity of the rear caliper?
I did this sort of conversion on old Triumphs and Fords when they were used as track cars back in the day. We often had to find a larger bore master or pedal travel become excessive. Brake progression was fabulous but once you bottom out the piston, you have no more brake power!!
Fitting a larger master cylinder will make the brakes heavier unless you can find a higher boosting servo to go with it.
Looks nice and I'm sure it's an improvement on the drums. I do however feel that the large drums fitted to the Freelander are up to the task. It's good to see other avenues being persuade though.

LR don't seem keen on using the rear discs as the parking brake. The Evoque, and possibly the Disco Sport, being the only ones. The others have a drum brake on the transmission, or combined disc/drum rears.

longdog said:

LR don't seem keen on using the rear discs as the parking brake. The Evoque, and possibly the Disco Sport, being the only ones. The others have a drum brake on the transmission, or combined disc/drum rears.

Click to expand...

My thoughts are these. A separate drum that wasn't helping stop the vehicle will work consitantly. When the parking brake is shared with the main brakes, there's a change in brake power as the discs cool off. There's a large amount of heat soak into the pads if the vehicle has had a high speed stop, like pulling into a motorway service area. This helps draw heat from the disc, aiding disc cooling. Disc pad materials work best in a set temperature range, generally something in the region of 50 to 350°C for a road vehicle. Outside of these running temperatures, the pads have a reduced ability to grip the disc. Manufacturers keep the upper temperature in check by using ventilated discs. The lower temperature is harder to control as it's often above ambient temperature. While driving, this is maintained by slight drag on the disc. While parked, the disc is at ambient so the pad doesn't have the same grip compared to a hot disc. This would give a slight loss of parking brake power as the disc cools. The parking brake system would need to be designed to take this into account.
A separate parking drum on the other hand wasn't heated during stopping the vehicle to a great degree, so maintains it's shoes maintain there drag on the drum. I believe that as the brake drum cools down, it actually contracts slightly onto the shoes, increasing parking brake power. There is also a much larger friction area on a drum brake system. This virtually guarantees a parking brake that affectively locks the wheel solid while it's applied. A disc system can't generally match this, even with a suitable activation system.
This is my thoughts anyway. Some based on theory, some based on my own findings over the years.

On my bikes at least, leaving a hot brake applied leads to the rotor cooling down at different rates and is very easy to warp them by doing this. Is a car disc brake noticeably more rugged in that regard or would that need to be taken into consideration as well?

Got suspension swapped on last corner now and last caliper mount tacked up. Welded painted and on hopefully this evening. Then need to source longer hoses and cables.

Hoses are easily made using Goodridge Buildaline hoses which allows you to make the pipes to your own design, using braided stainless pipe. I've used Buildaline for lost of applications over the years with great success.

http://goodridge.brakes-hoses-fittings.co.uk

That was my thoughts. It's already got them for the drums. Just way too short.