Brakes Binding 76' Series III

After rebuilding the brakes cylinders on all four wheels and doing the bleeding process twice, there is still brake binding after driving for only twenty minutes. Sometimes smoke comes out from behind the wheel indicating that there is significant friction being applied to the drums. After letting it sit for another half hour the problem goes away but then returns after another twenty minutes or so of driving. Any knowledge on this problem would be surely appreciated,
Thanks,
Beach

Go to the series section and have a read up, there are lots of posts by people having had similar problems over the years.

The system is set up too tight in terms the wheel cylinders and the master cylinder. Do the brakes bite really quickly and hard without much travel on the pedal? You want to achieve a relatively soft pedal action where they brakes bite gradually.

Yes the brakes engage soon after the brake pedal is pushed down. It feels tight to me but this is the first time I have had experience with this year and model of LR.

the way to set up the brakes is ensure they are correctly seated on the snail cam adjusters. jack up each wheel in turn and tighten the adjusters fully so you cant move them then back of the adjusters bit by bit on the jacked up wheel until it rotates freely, its okay if there is a little bit of rubbing but the wheel should still spin a couple of times after you rotate it. As youve bled the brakes and have put new cylinders on adjustment is the only thing left. Make sure your brake pedal adjustment is set correctly too, i doubt this could have an impact as you describe.

have you any free play on pedel before it goes tight some years ago ihad same problem turned out to be an ovel brake drum graduley pmping up system also a partley internly collapsing brake hose may cause this problem

do all brake drums get hot or just the 2 front or 2 back ones I tak it you have a tandom master cylinder have you checked master cylinder to see if rubber seals are swollen or perished

I think you should strip master cylinder to see if seals are swollen or perished as it may not be letting all pressure off when yoy release brake pedel when they, get hot try undoing brake pipe nut on master cylinder to see if this lets any pressure off

could be flexy pipe, if it's been crushed it can behave like a one way valve, so brake pedal pressure forces fluid through but it can't easily return so brakes bind on - very likely if pipes were clamped with mole grips...................... good luck

I have adjusted all the snail adjusters for each wheel, so in theory they should be good. After reading about the Master Brake Cylinder and adjusting it the brakes seem to have stop binding, which is great because driving down the road while smoke pours out and smelling burning brakes sucks! But now there seems to be something else slightly off subsequent to adjusting the MBC. The brakes don't fully apply until the third pump of pushing down the pedal, for example; first pump soft brakes...second pump firmer brakes...third pump brakes are functioning properly (let me know if I need to clear that explanation up more). I was thinking I may need to bleed the brakes one more time or re-adjust the MBC?
Also thanks for the replies, I appreciate all the help! I've never been on a forum before and the speedy feedback has been great.

to set master cylinder free play you need to push brake pedal gently by hand until you feel light resents which means brake push rod has touched master cylinder piston check with ruler it should be about half inch freplay as brakes have been overheated you should inspect all wheel cylinders to see if they are still free and not leaking also check linings if they got much to hot they can start to powdery and soft if all looks well blead brakes again after adjusting brakes you should get all wheels off ground and get someone to check all wheels are free while you push pedal hard then softly just enough to stop wheels being turned by hand try this with engine off or engine running if you have a brake survo iff brakes over heat do they do it on both axles or only one if on road test they start to over heat and get tight try loosing pipe nut at master cylinder to see if that lets them free up if they do it may be masternote cylinder sticking due to swollen seals or binding some where the most things I have found can cause this are 1master cylinder seals swollen or some binding 2 flexabel brake pipe collapsing internaly brakes adjusted to tight3slightly ovel drum causing it to pump up pressure fault with servo not letting all pressure go espeily if only brake pedal pressed lightly master cylinder can also do this where the brakes giving trubbel be for you fitted new wheel cylinders note half inch free play measured between brake pedal rubber and bulk head note when pushing brake pedal hard and soft let your foot up very slowly one other thing springs to mind are any of brake shoe pull off springs weak or stretched wish I could come and help you with reference slightly oval brake drum had this happen on single line master cylinder don't know if this could happen on duel line master cylinder

As above but bleed and bleed again, ideally with an ezee bleed type gadget - good luck, A

ps. should that not work send me a ticket and I'll come out and fix it for you.....................