A good reason to fix the squishy pedal...

[Rob]

If you've ever owned a series rover you've probably experienced a "squishy" brake pedal at one time or another. Land Rover lore often refers to "pumping" the brake pedal on a rover as a natural by-product of entrusting your stopping power to Girling. Others quip after a pint or two that it is a earliest example of anti-lock brakes in the automotive industry (except you pump the brake pedal rather than the pedal pumping you...). Some of us have learned to live with the idea of the squishy brake pedal (me too in the past). My recently purchased series 2 had brakes, in somewhat typical series form, with good stopping power but needed a pump or two to get a hard pedal. Classic signs of air in the system (or expanding rubber brake lines, or a leak somewhere, or maybe a malfunctioning master cylinder... or a plethora of other likely culprits). I decided to tackle to problem with the help of a trusty assistant and a big jug of brake fluid but after 2 litres and copious bubbles removed from the system the pedal would still hit the floor on the first pump (not good). So, now what? Pulled all 4 drums, looked like new, no grooves, measured well within diameter specs, no visible leaks on the slave cylinders, brake shoes had lots of lining... now what :?: These old series trucks do not have self-adjusting brakes so a conscientious owner/operator needs to manually adjust the brakes using the snail cams on the backing plate of each brake.... did that too though it seemed that the cams in the front were awfully hard to turn and still bottoming-out on the first pump. Off come the front drums, cams look good, turn properly... just as I am about to give-up I look at the return springs at the top of the shoes, they look to be in good shape but something isn't right, they are hooked into the holes in both shoes... a-hah, that doesn't look right. So, after a quick Google search to confirm my fading memory of the spring lay-out I see that the spring is supposed to go from the hole in the lead shoe to the pin on the backing plate... a quick relocation of the springs, put it all back together, and the pedal is rock solid! Problem solved (finally). It appears that the springs were pulling the lead shoes so far back that they weren't making contact on the travel of one pump plus the springs were snagging on the snail cams making adjustment difficult. As the slave cylinders weren't travelling far enough on just one pump thus the second pump was needed to complete the travel. The good news is that now the pedal is hard, adjusters were easy to set-up and the truck stops properly.

Ok, so here's the rub... yesterday, while driving the series 2 around town, a distracted driver in a J##p YJ turns left, about 30 feet directly in front of me, my foot goes onto the brake pedal with exuberance and I hear the screech of my wheels locking-up on the pavement (which "awoke" the YJ driver and he swerved and braked as well). Happy ending, no collision, an apology from the sheepish YJ driver :oops: and no noticeable stains on my rover seats :shock: ... what a difference a couple of incorrectly installed springs could have made in my life that day if left unattended... there would have been no time for a second "pump" on that brake pedal in that circumstance so I am glad I fixed it when I did otherwise I would have likely t-boned him and ruined my rover (and my day)... maybe Girling isn't so bad after-all :roll:

Cheers, Rob