monkfish24
Well-Known Member
It's been a while but the freelander turbo has been needing a bit of time to complete a few jobs.
A little while ago, the engine mount bolts sheared and dropped the engine, this caused the uppermost heater hose to tear at the bulkhead connector. I replaced that and also could hear the back box blowing, looked underneath and the passenger side spring hanger had rusted through. Not bad for a britpart back box, it lasted about 3 years.
The next job was to try and sort the braking out, the brakes were feeling very soft and had lots of travel before, and after replacing the flexible hoses for some nice shiny stainless braided hoses. ( a garage carried this out). I bled the front brakes using new DOT 4 brake fluid and a small pressure vessel that uses the spare tyre pressure to pressurise the brake reservoir. works really nicely for one person operation.
Anyway, I get to the rear brakes and find the bleed nipples are corroded and badly rounded off, safe to assume they didn't bother bleeding the rear brakes then, I ordered 2 new shiny brake pistons and fitted them when they arrived. I thought I would put some pictures up for reference of the brake springs and lay out for future use. just in case someone forgets to take photos and also offer some pointers for any body with brake problems.
So, pictures of the finished brakes with new springs and pins. I didn't replace the shoes as a) I had the wrong ones delivered and b) they have lots of life left on them.
Driver's side
Passenger side
So a few notes on issues when doing this;
Before, taking the brakes apart, loosen the handbrake adjuster right off, it's just makes getting the hand brake cable back off a lot easier.
Before you go to put the drum back on, tighten up the ratchet mechanism so the drum just fits on, you don't need to have to whack the drum back on as you may damage the shoe surface but just get it to the point where it is scuffing as you put it on, the last few mm of pushing it on, it should get a lot easier and just pop in place.
The hand brake mechanism on these are meant to move freely to work correctly, if you find the hand brake doesn't seem to have enough bite, this may be your issue. The mechanism may come out looking like this.
You can see the lever that the hand brake cable fastens into is black and very cruddy. Whilst it is out, free it up and get it spinning, then attack it with a wire wheel and try to clean it all out. It should end up looking like this:
I sparingly put some aluminium anti-seize on it, gave it a spin and then cleaned all the excess off.
It was also lucky that I decided to change the rear brake pistons, a bit over the top really for a bleed screw, however, one came out looking like this.
Not confidence inspiring. However, that means now that in my 3 year ownership, it's had new brake pistons and calipers all round. A bit of confidence considering it now tootles along with 200bhp, more than my old golf GTD was making! I then bled all the brake lines going to the rear and fed through a reservoir full amount of fluid to try and get all the old brake fluid out.
Before going back on the ground, with both rear wheels in the air, I then pumped the brakes to make the auto tensioners reset and then re-adjusted the hand brake, lift the lever 1 click, spin the rear wheel and adjust until the brake pad just starts slowing the wheel.
Car back on the ground, went out for a test run, with a few emergency stops and it feels brilliant, not quite brand new car level of brakes but 100% better.
Judging by the state of the subframe, one of my projects may be to get a new subframe, rebush, clean up and then replace out the whole subframe, whilst I also clean up the back end of the freelander.
Remember I said earlier that a heater hose had broken? well.... I noticed some coolant coming out of the top of the tank with the lid on, after my spirited drive to check the brakes, bled the cooling system again and then took it out for another drive. Again, this is what I came back to....
Doh!
Anyway, here's a nice picture of my freelander building up some patina during it's use and fun on the farm. who says these aren't proper land rovers?
A little while ago, the engine mount bolts sheared and dropped the engine, this caused the uppermost heater hose to tear at the bulkhead connector. I replaced that and also could hear the back box blowing, looked underneath and the passenger side spring hanger had rusted through. Not bad for a britpart back box, it lasted about 3 years.
The next job was to try and sort the braking out, the brakes were feeling very soft and had lots of travel before, and after replacing the flexible hoses for some nice shiny stainless braided hoses. ( a garage carried this out). I bled the front brakes using new DOT 4 brake fluid and a small pressure vessel that uses the spare tyre pressure to pressurise the brake reservoir. works really nicely for one person operation.
Anyway, I get to the rear brakes and find the bleed nipples are corroded and badly rounded off, safe to assume they didn't bother bleeding the rear brakes then, I ordered 2 new shiny brake pistons and fitted them when they arrived. I thought I would put some pictures up for reference of the brake springs and lay out for future use. just in case someone forgets to take photos and also offer some pointers for any body with brake problems.
So, pictures of the finished brakes with new springs and pins. I didn't replace the shoes as a) I had the wrong ones delivered and b) they have lots of life left on them.
Driver's side
Passenger side
So a few notes on issues when doing this;
Before, taking the brakes apart, loosen the handbrake adjuster right off, it's just makes getting the hand brake cable back off a lot easier.
Before you go to put the drum back on, tighten up the ratchet mechanism so the drum just fits on, you don't need to have to whack the drum back on as you may damage the shoe surface but just get it to the point where it is scuffing as you put it on, the last few mm of pushing it on, it should get a lot easier and just pop in place.
The hand brake mechanism on these are meant to move freely to work correctly, if you find the hand brake doesn't seem to have enough bite, this may be your issue. The mechanism may come out looking like this.
You can see the lever that the hand brake cable fastens into is black and very cruddy. Whilst it is out, free it up and get it spinning, then attack it with a wire wheel and try to clean it all out. It should end up looking like this:
I sparingly put some aluminium anti-seize on it, gave it a spin and then cleaned all the excess off.
It was also lucky that I decided to change the rear brake pistons, a bit over the top really for a bleed screw, however, one came out looking like this.
Not confidence inspiring. However, that means now that in my 3 year ownership, it's had new brake pistons and calipers all round. A bit of confidence considering it now tootles along with 200bhp, more than my old golf GTD was making! I then bled all the brake lines going to the rear and fed through a reservoir full amount of fluid to try and get all the old brake fluid out.
Before going back on the ground, with both rear wheels in the air, I then pumped the brakes to make the auto tensioners reset and then re-adjusted the hand brake, lift the lever 1 click, spin the rear wheel and adjust until the brake pad just starts slowing the wheel.
Car back on the ground, went out for a test run, with a few emergency stops and it feels brilliant, not quite brand new car level of brakes but 100% better.
Judging by the state of the subframe, one of my projects may be to get a new subframe, rebush, clean up and then replace out the whole subframe, whilst I also clean up the back end of the freelander.
Remember I said earlier that a heater hose had broken? well.... I noticed some coolant coming out of the top of the tank with the lid on, after my spirited drive to check the brakes, bled the cooling system again and then took it out for another drive. Again, this is what I came back to....
Doh!
Anyway, here's a nice picture of my freelander building up some patina during it's use and fun on the farm. who says these aren't proper land rovers?
