I am doing some work on my 2a to get it back on the road after being stood for nearly 3 years, i have just put new wheel cylinders on the front coz the bleed nipples were seized in the old 1s, it has got twin cylinders on the front with 11" shoes, the back cylinders are fine, i have bled the brakes up but if you leave it for about 2 mins, the pedal goes a good half way down, then if you press it again straight after it is a good pedal which drops about an inch, then if you leave it again it drops again and so on. Is it possible that i have not got all the air out of the system or the shoes aren't quite central in the drum maybe??? has anyone got any ideas. I have clamped all the hoses to check the master cylinder and the pedal is solid so i would the say the master cylinder is ok. thanks in advance neil.
landynutter
New Member
Ive had the same problem. Is the bleed nipple on the front wheels on the bottom or top ? Mine were at the bottom and was a pig to bleed as air sits in the top cylinder.I bought some new brake pipe and swoped the bleed to the top cylinder .
Graham Wilkinson
Active Member
There is more than likely still some air in the system, i had the same problem with my 90, i must have bled it 15 times before i got the pedal correct, it might help if you try to pressue bleed the system using a garden spayer (hoselock or similar), get a spare cap for the master cyl tank and ift the pipe from the garden sprayer to it fill the bottle with brake fluid and pump it up to give some pressure it helped with mine.
Graham
Graham
Pikey
Dummy Ejection Facilitator..
Innertube or even the spare tyre does a better job.
Cheers guys, the bleed nipple is on the bottom wheel cylinder, my mate has got 1 of them pressure bleeding jobbies so i will give that a try first, but i can also see the sense in having the bleed nipple at the top, i piped it up as it came off, so maybe its been done wrong before i got it.
thanks for all the replies and help. regards neil.
thanks for all the replies and help. regards neil.If a pressure bleed does not sort it then look at the spring positions and adjusters on all wheels.
Ie you press the peddle half way down and the shoes move out and then press it again and everything's ok then over the next couple of minutes the springs pull the shoes and pistons back in.
Ie you press the peddle half way down and the shoes move out and then press it again and everything's ok then over the next couple of minutes the springs pull the shoes and pistons back in.
'Fraid not.
In drum brakes the return springs hoick the brake shoes back as quickly as you can take your foot off the brake pedal. This is why drum brakes need adjusters - to keep the linings out close to the drums, thus short pedal travel.
Not so in disc brakes - the pads stay out nearly but not quite touching the discs all the time anyway.
CharlesY.
Yes and no
Only one ajuster per wheel on a 2a 10" drum.
Its a single leading shoe system and yes the leading shoe dropes back quickly but if the springs are fitted incorrectly the trailnig shoe will be pulled back to far over a period of a 30 seconds or so.
Disco Inferno
New Member
I read about a chap (LRO) who rebuilt all his brakes completly and bled them. When he took it for its mot it failed on spongy brakes so he put a brake hose clamp on the flexy hose opened the bleed niple and closed the slave cylinder to push any air out of em. whent round and repeated this on all wheeles and it worked. It was that 19 year old in LRO who's dad was a fabricator and he built his son a stainless steel chassis for his series... Very nice.
Davec
New Member
I agree with the theory, but in the past I have had similar symptoms cured by readjusting the brakes.
Was it built with 11" drums, or were they fitted later. In which case, has it got the right master cylinder?
" ... if the springs are fitted incorrectly ..."
That's what you wrote.
I say this - if ANY parts of your braking system are fitted incorrectly, don't expect predictable or correct behaviour from your brakes.
I don't care how many leading or trailing shoes are fitted in a drum brakes system, but I can assure you the return springs are designed to pull the lining off the drums IMMEDIATELY, and that means they should be following the pedal up, not coming up 30 seconds later.
THINK THINK THINK!!!!
And remember, your life and the lives of anyone in range, depends on YOUR brakes being right.
CharlesY
Geez Yella .... I got cross .... I mean, look what some of these people are saying! I sometimes wonder if some of the LZers paid any attention at school, physics classes especially. I mean, hydraulics - it doesn't come any simpler than that!
People need to learn to THINK and to SEE.
I mean up to 30 seconds for pull-off springs to take brake shoes back! That I want to see for myself.
OK - rant over. Back to being a calm Rupert ....
Anyway, how are you now you've been reincarnated like the RevJames's boss?
CharlesY
I was Thinking which is something I suggest you take up some time before you go shouting at people.
I was thinking of situations / circumstances which would cause the symptoms as described because his breaks were clearly not working as designed by land rover therefore there is something wrong.
Also I did not say the shoes were not being pulled off immediately I said that the trailing shoe will be pulled back too far.
The errant shoe will push the fluid back up in to the reservoir over a period of 30 sec's or so and therefore when you next come to use the brakes the trailing shoe has to travel much further to reach the drum and you foot will go way down.
Clivees
