Bleeding Brakes and Clutch

Series Land Rovers can be difficult to bleed, and with new master, wheel, and slave cylinders, and new brake pipes throughout, there was plenty of places for air to hide..

I bled the clutch first, this was straightforward as they're easy to get to on a 2A and sit upright. I pumped the fluid through at the pedal and operated the bleed nipple while I sat there doing it. The fluid came through aerated to begin with and then came through solid and I nipped it up and had a good clutch pedal. I fit a steel braided hose between the slave and master outlet pipe. The master is an OEM. The slave is a repro part. I packed their boots with red rubber brake grease.

I bled the brakes the same way to begin with, into a one-man bleed kit from Halfrauds (not to be confused with the one-man pressure bleeder I link and talk about further down) with the non-return valve in the bleed hose. I found a couple of leaks very quickly and nipped up the unions which fixed those. I did all four wheels about four times with the one-man bleed kit but still had a spongy pedal. At this point it would go all the way to the floor on the first stroke!

I then tried doing it manually with a helper, as I thought the cylinders might be drawing air back past the bleed threads when the pedal was coming back up. (Despite having some PTFE on all my bleed nipples.) I thought closing the bleed nipples before the helper let the pedal up would sort this. We did it three times round and the pedal was better but still no cigar; it would go down to within an inch of the floor but not touch it any more, but still get firmer with more pumps..

I then got a pressure bleeder from Paddock Spares for about £15. They do fit the shared 'bean can' reservoir like my 2A has. I had trouble getting good seals everywhere until I started using wads of PTFE tape everywhere I could hear air or see fluid escaping. You're aiming for a complete seal when you connect the pressure valve to your front O/S tyre. You don't want your wheel going down, and you don't want to stop and start while you're working as you'll get air in the input tube. Once I'd got good seals I was able to blast all four wheels in turn again, and I went around about 3 times. Again the pedal was better but still no cigar as it would go down past half way on the first press and firm up with two or three more. You're aiming for a firm pedal that does not get firmer with successive pumps - this firming up indicates air somewhere being compressed..

I then bought three bar type flexi hose clamps. With all three flexis clamped off the pedal would not move at all. This was a good sign as it meant no air was trapped between the reservoir and the flexis or in the master cylinder. I removed the rear flexi clamp and the pedal was still incredibly firm so that gave me confidence the rear cylinders were bled. I clamped the back off again, and opened each front one in turn. Each one made the pedal a bit worse and with both fronts unclamped the spongy pedal was back, so now I knew the air was in the front cylinders. I bled each one with the rest clamped off using the pressure bleeder. I didn't get any air out to begin with. When I tightened the brake adjusters up tight to bring the pistons out the wheel cylinders inside the drum, I then got some air out both sides - it must have been stuck somewhere at the end of the piston and so not coming out when bled normally. This was a tip from a neighbour who said he'd had to do this often working on HGVs years ago. The pedal felt good now. I set the adjusters back where they should be and tried once more, got no air, so removed all the clamps and tried the pedal. It's really good now. It goes down about half way on the first press and does not get any firmed with more pumps. I can't see any leaks and I'm not losing fluid from the reservoir overnight.

The pressure bleeder I used:

https://www.paddockspares.com/one-man-brake-bleeder-hose-kit.html


The kind of bar type clamps I used. Put your hose mid-point between the bars at the pivot end, not further down towards the thumb screw end. The pivot end is where the gap is just right to seal off your flexi hose with the minimal amount of pressure, so as not to damage the hose.

Get Your Grille On..

I finally found a Series 2A maltese grille on eBay that was battered enough to put a few other bidders off while still being good enough for me - anything in much better condition would stand out! : )

I'm missing some fixings as there was a Series 3 plastic grille fitted when I bought her, so I'll need to find those.. I do appear to have the mount points in the right place, at least..

Master Cylinders and Clutch Slave

As I was fitting new master brake and clutch cylinders I also took the time to clean up the pedal boxes and oil the pedal trunnions. The clutch pedal was so stiff the spring couldn't lift it again so they were overdue some attention.

Before..

With the old cylinders removed I got the pedals swinging freely again, painted the boxes, fit some new pedal rubbers, and made up some new gaskets. The driver's footwell will need replacing at some point but as I was there I cleaned that up and gave it a coat of primer and BS 224 (Deep Bronze Green).

The clutch pedal was hard to move even by hand..

Make your own..

New pedal rubbers.. Spoiling her!

I also fit the new clutch slave cylinder and steel braided clutch hose. I gave all the new cylinders some red rubber grease under their boots, which is compatible with brake fluid. I hope it will help keep moisture out and keep the piston operating smoothly.

With the new inlet pipes and brake lines re-connected everything is now ready for new fluid so the next job will be bleeding the clutch and brakes.

Waiting for new fluid..

New Fuel Tank (and Hoses)

I've had the new fuel tank ready to fit for a while but ran into problems re-fitting the filler neck tube and new filler hose. When I first took them off I found the PO had bent the filler neck's face plate to get it in contact with the four fixings on the rear tub, leaving a big gap where water could get in over time. I bent it straight again and didn't think much of it. When I went to refit it myself with a new hose I found out why he'd done it.. I couldn't for the life of me get the filler neck tube to mate flush with the tub and get the new hose down to the tank at the same time. And if I put the hose on first, I couldn't get the filler neck tube on..

To cut a long story short, the first new hose was incredibly stiff and hard to work with, and not the right shape at all. After a few attempts, dropping and raising the fuel tank each time, I started doubting I had the right filler neck tube(!) Luckily someone measured their known to fit tube off their Series 2 and it was the same as mine so I started to think about the hose more. I still didn't know I had an unsuitable part but as I'd by now cut it too short I decided to start again and order another one.

The second hose I bought was specifically described as being for a Series 2A, rather than a generic 'FILLER HOSE 88"'. When it arrived I could tell it was a better shape (it has to bend down first at the point where it goes from wide to narrow, and then to the right and down at the right angle to mate the tank), and it was also cleaner inside and much easier to bend by hand as well.

The filler neck tube is now sealed flush with the tub and the hose fits neatly.

Fluid Reservoir and Pipes

I removed the shared brake/clutch fluid reservoir and gave it a lick of paint and a reproduction of the old Girling sticker. I also replaced the 1/4" pipes from the reservoir into the clutch and brake master cylinders.

Not exactly rivet counting, but a slippery slope!

I also made up a new pipe to go between the master clutch cylinder and the flexi that runs into the slave cylinder. That's all copper pipes on the vehicle now newly replaced.

The slave cylinder on the 2A is on the O/S of the bell housing facing straight up. There's a round plastic plate in the transmission cover that you can remove for easy access to the bleed nipple. I don't know why they moved them to the N/S underneath the vehicle for the Series 3s as it seems better placed where mine is.

That said, the bleed nipple was rounded and seized when I went to undo it. After some thinking I've decided I may as well fit a new slave cylinder as all the new pipes are on and empty and I'm about to fill up with new fluid and bleed everything - which means I should also fit a new master cylinder if I'm going to do the job properly.

New Rear Springs and Brake Pipes

I've now fit the new parabolics from GB Springs on the rear along with my tidied up standard dampers. GB advise standard dampers should be appropriate for their parabolics for general road use and light off-road, so I am going to see how they fare once I'm on the road - especially as I already had them and they are not leaking.

I can see she is sitting higher than she was, and standard check straps are too short even with some weight in the back. I will have to wait until she's out the garage and had chance to settle before torquing up and measuring up to make some check straps.

I've also flared and fit six new brake pipes and three new flexi-hoses which replaces the whole brake line in its entirety. Next job is a complete brake/clutch fluid replacement and bleeding operations. I have bought a one-man manual bleeder on recommendation. Time will tell if I am going to need a pressure bleeder of some kind.

Brake Pipe Flares and Flaring

I had a slow start making up new brake lines to replace the old ones on the vehicle. I spent some time practicing with some copper pipe and a cheap tool that could not guarantee the pipe was held straight when forming the flare, and that did not constrict the shape of the flare on formation to the precise shape it should be - results were average at best with 3 in 4 flares being unusable.

I upgraded to a hand vice style tool (about £30) which does ensure the pipe is held perfectly straight while performing the flare, and crucially, also constricts the shape of the flare to precisely what it should be. There is no lining things up by eye and watching the process as it takes shape - the pipe can only expand to occupy the precise shape required, so you essentially get a perfect flare every time. This tool can also be used "in hand" laying under the vehicle if necessary - which I have done when I needed to remove 2" off the end of a pipe I'd already made up and half-fitted.

In addition to changing the tool I was using I also switched to copper nickel ("kunifer") pipe before starting to make up any final pipes for actual fitting. It's slightly more corrosion resistant than copper and amounts to the "same price" over 25'.

I've fit 4 new brake pipes now, with the easier 3 of 7 to go. I've also fit the 3 new flexi-hoses. I'll post some photos once they're all done and report on the subsequent bleeding operations at the same time.