Series IIA LWB Brakes

Can anyone confirm how many bleed nipples there should be on the front. I have two brake cylinders on each wheel with just one bleed nipple in the bottom cylinder. Is this correct? Having problems bleeding the system having fitted new cylinders. Tried everything but pedal still on the floor.

I've got the one bleed nipple per wheel on mine, but the bleed nipple is on the upper cylinder. The flexi hose joins on to some solid pipe which goes round the back of the axle into the bottom cylinder, then a solid pipe comes out of this and goes round the front into the top cylinder with the bleed nipple. I think yours is the standard setup and mine has been modified to make it easier to bleed.

One of the things you can do to bleed them with the bleed nipple at the bottom is to take the back plates off and hold them flat for bleeding. A bit of a pain, but bleeding these brakes is notorious for being a bugger.

I take my back plates off and hang them upside down then bleed them never had any bother doing it that way

Yep tis a silly set-up

The other way is to bleed the top cylinder by cracking open the connection of the link pipe then bleeding the nipple on the bottom.

Works well enough but you have to be careful not to drip fluid everywhere....plenty of rags.

Thanks guys, will try these methods. At least now I know I haven't completely lost my mind, was beginning to wonder!! Think I'll look at modifying in due course to get the bleed nipple on the top cylinder.

Just to update this with positive news (forgot to do this at the time). After a couple of months of changing just about everything and various "qualified Landy mechanics" all having a look an some having near nervous breakdowns over it, we found that we had been supplied with the wrong master cylinder!! Apparently their are slight variances with the arm travel. Replaced this, modified the front drums to have bleed nipples at the top, and hey presto, brakes again!!!

Also some master cylinders differ in which outlet port goes to front or rear brakes.
I have the"fatter" 11" twin cylinder brakes up front and they were pants, I kept locking rear wheels up. Had a good look at everything and after researching the link below found different master cylinders had different profiles, I had to switch the ports on mine so the rear port went to the front brakes.

http://www.expeditionlandrover.info/dual_brake_conv.htm

foxyjam said:

Also some master cylinders differ in which outlet port goes to front or rear brakes.
I have the"fatter" 11" twin cylinder brakes up front and they were pants, I kept locking rear wheels up. Had a good look at everything and after researching the link below found different master cylinders had different profiles, I had to switch the ports on mine so the rear port went to the front brakes.

Series Land Rover Dual Power brake conversion

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it sounds like you have S3 brakes that had the dual line master cylinder on a servo assisted pedal box

NOT 2a brakes, i'm not sure if the later 2a had dual line brakes but my 1965 109 certainly doesn't, single line master cylinder and not even a servo to assist mine, i can still lock all four wheels up if i want/need to

Po had fitted these brakes, think they're from the 109 1 ton model being the fatter 3"shoes and drums. They're needed on my little 2a with the v8

foxyjam said:

Po had fitted these brakes, think they're from the 109 1 ton model being the fatter 3"shoes and drums. They're needed on my little 2a with the v8

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it'll accellerate faster than mine i guess, it might even have a slightly better top speed

try a 2a 109 with 200tdi, overdrive (out for rebuild ) and 3.54 diffs, they romp along quite well (no servo and single line master cylinder, i can lock all four wheels as i demonstrated the other weekend )

or you could try my 88" bitsa, it's lighter than the 109 so accellerates better and has the same ratio diffs, 7.50 tyres and overdrive (out at present, again for rebuild/oil seals) and with a little patience would clear 90mph all with nicely set up 10" brakes, no servo and a single line master cylinder :rofl:

i have increased the size of the brakes on the front now but they're still SLS and changed the pedal box/master cylinder to servo assisted dual line, it stops no faster but the pedal is lighter, the tyre adhesion limits it's stopping ability

your size drums were fitted to all the sixpot and Stage1 landrovers

p.s.
a V8 doesn't increase the weight intertia

You have more toys than me I think the fatter brakes having more surface area prolong breaking use before you get brake fade and brown pants

I'm running standard diffs, but will cruise easily at 65 and I've seen 80 but I pulled back.

I recently rebuilt the gearbox and snapped my first half shaft lady week - made me jump a bit! Luckily it snapped at the hub end and I had my spanner's so a quick fix and drive home in 4wd.

I have future plans of singing a couple of disco axles under her, another member has already done it. Benefits are diffs, disc brakes and generally stronger axles. I'm keeping the leaf springs and I'm in the process of fitting power steering so the misses can drive it too. Don't want her getting bloke arms she might pull my tadger off in a night of passion!

foxyjam said:

You have more toys than me I think the fatter brakes having more surface area prolong breaking use before you get brake fade and brown pants

I'm running standard diffs, but will cruise easily at 65 and I've seen 80 but I pulled back.

I recently rebuilt the gearbox and snapped my first half shaft lady week - made me jump a bit! Luckily it snapped at the hub end and I had my spanner's so a quick fix and drive home in 4wd.

I have future plans of singing a couple of disco axles under her, another member has already done it. Benefits are diffs, disc brakes and generally stronger axles. I'm keeping the leaf springs and I'm in the process of fitting power steering so the misses can drive it too. Don't want her getting bloke arms she might pull my tadger off in a night of passion!

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halfshafts can "pop" at any time and with any engine, a mate had one fail on the way back from Wales last year whilst he was going round an island, he'd already pulled away and was just changing up (an hour at the side of the road pulling halfshafts and the diff out, refitting and stuffing a new shaft back in ), i've seen a poorly running 2.25 petrol have a diff fail even, i think the cross pin sheared or dropped allowing a planet gear to tilt and explode...

another mate flexed his 4.7:1 crownwheel in Sibbertoft and stripped about six teeth off it and ate the pinion gear at the same time, that gave me a good thrash back to Brum in my 88" to collect a replacement, he was using a tdi to punish his though :rofl:

another mate had his diff break up and it blew a hole in the diff pan

i've not broke either a diff or halfshaft as of yet, but i think it's partly due to the 3.54 diff having bigger teeth (less of them needed to gear it at that ratio and i think it reduces the torque you can apply on the shafts) and i am a little cautious about how and where i use the power

although on saying that, i've got 3 dead or near dead S3 gearboxes that i've um err killed in my 88" but that one IS my hooligan tool to be stupid with (i've even sunk it in the middle of a river deep enough to fill the cubby box), one of the gearboxes howled so badly that you could hardly hear the tyre hum from the General SAG crossplies

It's all fun and games! The reason I rebuilt my gearbox was because 2nd suddenly became whiney. It never built up it just happened all sudden like. I was in brum at the time too....maybe land rover's (old ones anyway ) aren't meant to be in the city after all!

Weird thing is when I dropped the box every gear seemed good with no chipped teeth or visuals wear. I changed every gear on the main shaft anyway and can't hear the box at all now. But with the 7.50 trakgrip's I can't hear much at 50+ anyway!