Just wondering if there is much benafit in having the larger brakes?
Ive been offered a early ser3 thats been standing and want to know if its worth investing in 11" drums or make do with the standard 10" brakes?

Thanks in advance

Andy

Brakes ffs.

correctly set up 10" brakes work very well, my 88" before i started tinkering would lift it's arse and squirm about like buggery under heavy braking at speed

bigger brakes are worth while if you live in a hilly area and either carry lots of weight or tow heavy weights as they'll deal with "fade" a little better

I think I'll be fitting them at some point. It's hilly round here and they overheat very easily....overshot my street the other day....glad it wasn't a kid on a bicycle! Brakes set up right all came out at just over 300 on the MOT machine the other day. Tester was most impressed/bemused!

Dom

The LWB brakes are twin leading shoe on the front and the linings are also wider so are worth fitting. When land rover fitted twin leading shoe brakes on the front of the 88 they put the LWB brakes on the front and the SWB front brakes on the rear. Then of course there are 1 ton brakes which are bigger still.
If you fit the twin leading shoe brakes it is worth bleeding the fronts with the back plates upside down before you fit them so the bleed nipple is at the top, it was a nightmare job with the old CB type master cylinders, omg it may be 20 years ago but I remember struggling with them every time one needed wheel cylinders and shoes you were in for some bother.

If I got hold of some LWB bits and moved front to back would I need to swap servo, master cylinder. load balance valve? Is the front to back swap straightforward. Mines a 1981 first reg but seems to have older break and bearing parts on it....

dominicbeesley said:

If I got hold of some LWB bits and moved front to back would I need to swap servo, master cylinder. load balance valve? Is the front to back swap straightforward. Mines a 1981 first reg but seems to have older break and bearing parts on it....

Click to expand...

that gibberish makes absolutely no sense whatsoever

i can see there's supposed to be a question in there somewhere because you've used the word, "if"

Reworded for clarity:

If I got hold of some front LWB front brakes and swapped the SWB front brakes to the back (as mentioned in post#5) do I need to change any of the following items:

- servo
- master cylinder
- load balance valve

Is the front to back swap simple i.e. does everything just fit or do things need fabricating? [I'm guessing that the LWB fronts do just bolt on other than pipe-work]

Mines a 1981 (the year the brakes were updated) but uses the older 10" brakes and pre-unified bearings

Dom

i think the 11" TLS front brakes do use a different mastercylinder to the 10" SLS brakes as i think they need to move more fluid, best you check the part numbers in the parts book but the servos to the best of my knowledge are the same

i'm not sure i'd go along with fitting the front 10" brakes on the rear axle as i'm pretty certain that will be too powerful for a lightly loaded 88"

there's no real need to fit the shuttle valve in the system, all that is for is a warning light on the dash to indicate if you lose pressure in one circuit but if you want the warning light then fit it by all means

for final clarity i'm guessing you already have a dual circuit servo assisted braking system but only 10" brakes on the front axle, to me all you need to get is the 11" TLS front components and the corresponding mastercylinder

i did things slightly differently when i fitted 11" drums on my front axle, i used 11" rear axle backplates off a salisbury which meant i didn't need to move or change anything, this gave me wider shoes with a bigger braking area and stops me dead, i have a dual line master cylinder and servo under the bonnet and ignored the shuttle valve (didn't fit it) and just plumbed straight to each axle, the front union on the M/C goes to the rear axle and the rear union on the M/C goes to the front axle

11" rear axle slaves are the same size as 10" front slaves

the only thing you'll find by fitting salisbury backplates to a front axle is the slave cylinder won't be a 12 o'clock as the fitting holes are drilled in a different position

Thanks Nitemare,

I might go with your suggestion and put rear Salisbury ones on. The actual braking is fine they just tend to run out when you're doing a lot of down hill! I tend not to carry heavy loads.

Re the shuttle valve. I'm not sure on the legality of removing it but I'd like to. Mine has failed spectacularly once already...if one O-ring fails the switch leaks and you lose brakes. Not a good system!

Yes I've already got dual + servo with front plumbed to back etc.

Cheers

Dom

dominicbeesley said:

Thanks Nitemare,

I might go with your suggestion and put rear Salisbury ones on. The actual braking is fine they just tend to run out when you're doing a lot of down hill! I tend not to carry heavy loads.

Re the shuttle valve. I'm not sure on the legality of removing it but I'd like to. Mine has failed spectacularly once already...if one O-ring fails the switch leaks and you lose brakes. Not a good system!

Yes I've already got dual + servo with front plumbed to back etc.

Cheers

Dom

Click to expand...

then if you've already had one fail i'd remove it and consider it an upgrade in itself and stuff the legality of it, i'd argue in court if needs be that removing it removes one point of potential failure

when i fitted the salisbury 11" rears the drivers side slave now sits at 11 o'clock and the passenger side one sits at 1 o'clock

one thing i didn't know when fitting these is that there is a trailing shoe and leading shoe by design, each shoe has it's own adjuster and if you put the shoes on the wrong way the adjuster and pin don't meet correctly which will at the very least make adjustment difficult if not impossible

the other thing is that the shoes have different size braking surfaces, i'd suggest looking very carefully at them when you remove them from the axle and mark each unit up as either "driver" or "passenger" to ensure you put the backplates back on the correct sides

(mine may be on the wrong sides)

i hope that helps

Cheers mate,

Won't be for a while yet...next job up is the brakes on my bus. Can almost guarantee those bastids will **** themselves after being stood for 9 months!

Makes fettling the landy look like a proper gentle lady's job! All four sets off, with wheels, set fire to the pads refit and hope they weep rather than **** next time....stops like a good un when its working. ****ty knickers time when it doesn't and you've got it up to crusing speed...

D

If you fit the 11" tls brakes to the front then to maintain the balance between front and rear you will need to upgrade the rears and when the factory did this they fitted front wheel cylinders to the rear which are larger diameter so more powerful to match the fronts, then you will need the corresponding duel circuit master cylinder (I'm not 100% sure the master is different on early and late swb). on a swb the front and rear brakes are the same except the wheel cylinders are different sizes.
The 11" back plates and drums fit straight onto the axles.