With the vehicle all back together and a new tray built, there were still many smaller jobs, too many to mention, to complete the project. At an early stage though, I was desperate to take the thing for a short drive to confirm that everything worked as it should. I double checked all the new tie rod ends were split-pinned, brakes adjusted and bled, suspension bolts all tight etc. It wasn't registered so I chose a late Sunday morning as the point of least traffic in my local streets, deciding the risk of being apprehended was minimal within a few hundred metres of home. We growled down the driveway in first gear and turning out onto the street reminded me of how heavy the steering and how bad the turning circle is on these old machines. As I slipped into second gear I had a smile from ear to ear. Better try the brakes, whoa there, nothing. Luckily the handbrake, with its new shoes, was working well. Off again and 30mph seemed a satisfactory top speed for the first trial and all was well except the brakes. The web is full of horror stories about getting the air out of Land Rover brakes, jack the front up, pressure bleed and so on. To this point I'd only gravity bled the brakes so got a mate to pump the pedal while I rebled the system according to the book, but we still had almost no pedal. I called the help of a mobile brake mechanic who after checking things carefully, clamped off the various wheels and decided we had good brakes on the front while the back was clamped off, but very little when the system was free. I had reused the old drums so he recommended I get the back drums and shoes radiussed. A machining
process of re-rounding the drums and getting the shoes to match. After this we got a good half pedal and just adequate brakes. I was assured they would improve as things wore in over the first thousand miles and the brakes were readjusted.
Comments