1986 90 brakes - v soft pedal, especially after prolonged use

Good afternoon all. I have had probs with the brakes on my 90 for a while. The master cylinder was replaced recently, the servo passes the usual tests, the garage that fitted the MC have bled the brakes again and there are new pads on the rear. It has a Disco 1 front axle/discs. Essentially the pedal travels about halfway before it has any bite. It is useable for short journeys but I went out yesterday for 5 hours and at the end of the trip the brake pedal can travel to the bulkhead before it bites. There is no obvious leakage I can find. Does anyone have any idea what the problem could be, pls?

Thanks.

Have you got the wrong master cylinder fitted?

When the master cylinder was fitted was the pushrod clearance adjust correctly?

Hi. I don't work on the brakes and the garage that fitted the MC is a Land Rover specialist. It is possible, of course, but I would hope they know what they're up to! I will go back to them to discuss the problem but sometimes the experience on this site can help.

Is it definitely pads on the rear?
A 1986 90 would have started life with drums at the rear, if it has had new shoes rather than pads, the rear brakes will have needed to have been adjusted.
If the rear drums are out of adjustment, it can cause excessive pedal travel.
If it has a later disc brake axle fitted, ignore the above, discs self-adjust.

Apologies. Shoes on the rear, not pads. As the garage is a specialist I would have hoped they had done this. It has already been back once for a re-bleed after the pads were changed 2 weeks ago. The problem is that they sort of feel OK when cold (though still not great) so under a test drive they feel OK. Prolonged use then softens the pedal feel considerably.

Not only do they need adjusting when new shoes are fitted, they also need to be adjusted to compensate for wear in the shoes. A little bit of adjustment on the drums can make a big difference at the pedal.

sounds to me like the garage hasnt set the MC and/or the rear drums up properly tbh

Clamp rear brake flex and (carefully) roadtest.

Drums and shoes are a throwback to another era, and not many people are going to understand them, even so called specialists.

Garage hasn't done their job properly.
Nothing special about land rover brakes.
You won't find a much easier brake system.
If they cannot sort these brakes then they must be pretty poor.

I will check the rear drum adjustment tomorrow, see if that is the problem. Thanks all.

AJofShabby said:

I will check the rear drum adjustment tomorrow, see if that is the problem. Thanks all.

Click to expand...

Jack wheel up, adjust adjuster until wheel starts to lock, then back it off until wheel spins freely, little bit of drag wont kill it, espeically if they are new shoes.
Back it off even the slightest amount to much, and you instantly have to long a pedal stroke.

Drums need constant tlc to keep in fine fettle, we have them on the trucks at work, royal pita.

I cannot remember which way the adjuester goes, on my series I wrote on the inner wings in marker pen to remind me!

Thanks for this. I have adjusted the drums and the brakes are already much better. Amazing how much difference that a 1mm turn makes. I will keep an eye on this as, once you know what you are doing, it is quite straightforward. Once again, thanks to everyone that has helped. Onto the next challenge....