I have now fitted all new brake lines throughout using copper-nickel pipes and brass unions. The hoses are Goodridges stainless braided hoses, long enough to deal with the suspension lift. The pedal boxes are being refurbished, and a new brake master cylinder has been bought. The servo is only a few years old and looks brand new, so i’ll be re-used.
Brake Pipes
Comments
Speak Your Mind
You must be logged in to post a comment.
Dear Nick:
The second picture shows the pdwa valve mounted upside down ( the switch is looking downwards )
Does it make a diference to mount it upwards ?
I have seen diferent models of pdwa valves and many of them have upwards mounted switch.
Mine is a 88
The valve is mounted correctly – it was a direct replacement for the original valve which had never been removed and was also oriented the same way, and can only fit the mounting bracket one way because of the relative positions of the bolt and locating dowel. I suspect LR fixed it this way so that any water would run out of the switch plug, not into it.
I would not be the least bit surprised if LR fitted these in a variety of positions and orientations, but it should make no difference to the inner workings.
Nick.
Hi Nick
I am from South Africa great landie country and has also started building up a landie s111.My previous s11 gave me endless trouble with the brakes, it also did not have a servo unit, I am planning of putting in a servo in this one , i got a new landie s111 servo, problem is the old landie has none and i need some advice on the mounting of the servo as the brake pedal is not the same for the servo and the non servo models. Can you shed some light on this issue?
Kind Regards
Lukas
Hi Lukas.
If you have a single line brake system on your SIII, you could just fit a remote servo rather than the Land Rover unit; the former would be available from a motorsport or kit car parts supplier and just fits in-line to the exisiting master cylinder’s output line before it splits to the axles, while the latter wlll require a new pedal box and compatible master cylinder. If I’m not mistaken, those master cylinders specified for SIIIs with servos were for dual line systems with 11″ brakes and twin leading shoe systems. I suspect that you could probably use a dual circuit master cylinder and split the single line system to become dual line without replacing all the axle brake components – the master cylinder produces equal pressure in each of the dual lines, so you wouldn’t have to worry about brake balancing.
The servo won’t increase braking efficiency or power if you retain the existing brake system, but the brakes will require much less pedal force. If you think you need more powerfull braking, then a more affordable way than fitting one of the disc brake conversions is to fit the entire system from a 109 or post 1980 88 with the dual line, 11″ system.
Hi Nick just had an overhauled master cylinder put in, connected up, bled the brakes twice, but the brake pedal won’tpump pressure at all help!
Series drum brakes are very sensitive to adjustment, and you need to make sure that each shoe is set as close to the drum as possible. Most drums are slightly ovalised, so if you adjust the shoes so that you hear them intermittently lightly scrape the drum, you have them set correctly.
109s twin leading shoe front brakes are very tricky to bleed. The only way of getting all of the air out is to remove the hubs and the brake backplate, lay the backplate horizontal so that the pipes are on top and the cylinders and shoes underneath, clamp the pistons fully retracted (shoes removed) or tie the shoes back with the adjusters backed off and then bleed – this technique puts the outlet ports of the cylinders at the top, so any air will be forced out. It’s time consuming but worthwhile, and it gives you an opportunity to inspect and service the wheel bearings and hub seal. A bit of a bodge way of doing the same thing is to remove the shoes and pistons and lay a piece of medium gauge fishing line into the bores, and making sure the line stays at the 12o’clock position of each bore, refit the pistons. The fishing line will break the seal, allowing the air to be expelled while you gently bleed the system. A each bore becomes filled with the fluid, the fluid will start to leak out the top of each piston. At this point, gently and smoothly remove the fishing line. The fishing line is soft and smooth enough to avoid damaging the seals. Don’t try this with wire, thread or other substitutes.
Failing all of that, suspect the master cylinder; it may have been to worn for overhaul or the new seals may be of poor quality or damaged, especially since the overhaul kits are almost invariably after-market rather than genuine parts.
I hope you get to the bottom of it.
Good pictures. I’m rebuilding my SIII but I can not work out where the brake pipes go. Mine appears to be different in that the front off side line and the near side both connect to peddle pipe at the same place as the rear brake line, could you help? The manual isn’t very clear about the routing
Hi Saen,
There were several different fits. Some used independent lines from the PWDA valve to the front corners, while others used a single line to the front cross member and a T-piece to each corner. I can’t see either having much mechanical advantage, but the T-piece system may be easier to fit for many people and uses less pipe. the cost of the pipe is probably similar to the cost of the T-piece and the extra couple of unions to fit it, so I doubt it was done for economics. regardless, either system should be fine.
Hello nick
Have a PDWA LUKAS 9000 = NRC4480 which I would like to repair.
Is probably the same as yours.
Did you have a repair kit?
Can I get the part number?
greetings from Germany Dieter
Hi Dieter,
I replaced the unit outright, but I would now recommend a different course of action. All that the unit does is advise of a leak, and only then if the leak is sufficient to cause a considerable pressure differential between the front and rear brakes. That means you would need to brake hard with a big leak for the shuttle to move and activate the warning light, and small leaks or even big leaks with light braking would not activate the light.
Far more sensitive, reliable and easier to deal with is the level sensor equipped reservoir cap from a Defender/Range Rover/Discovery (fitted from 300Tdi onwards, if not earlier). That allows the PWDA unit to be removed, making bleeding considerably easier; my experience of bleeding the brakes with this unit installed is one of severely testing patience, and the disc brake retrofit did not alter the difficulty in removing air from the system, removing the poorly designed front cylinders as a suspect and pinpointing the PWDA unit as the culprit.
If you do this, you will need to extend the wiring from the original plug and connect both loom wires (which work as a loop) to one terminal of the cap, and connect the other cap terminal to earth. It’s that easy.
I have never stripped a PWDA unit, so have no experience to fall back on, but given the corrosion typically found in them and what I have found in slave cylinders, I think rebuilding one will be challenging. It’d take a lot of cleaning up of the corrosion, and you may find the surfaces too pitted to seal correctly. Only trying will tell. You should only need the seals to repair it, which should be available from a bearings and seals supplier (most towns have one), if they are not available from LR specialists.
I hope that helps,
Nick