Brakes

Hey, I have more knowledge of Series Landys than the 1988 (some of it!) 90 which is my daily driver, but I'm learning fast. I believe it has been fitted with Rangie classic axles which makes sense as they were more available back when the previous owner was upgrading the vehicle and that swop gave it disc brakes all around. The hubs centres/halfshafts have odd allen key countersunk screws instead of the usual bolts & I am unsure if these were also upgraded hardened shafts? I have yet to count the splines. The countersinking looks very professional & not something someone would have been able to do at home with a dremmel!! Now, I've heard that 90 & 110 callipers are of differing sizes, as in the 110's are significantly bigger. So, my question is this. Would the larger 110 callipers on the front axle improve the braking over what is presumably, standard Rangie callipers (which were probably good in their day)? My 90's brakes are all in good order, & came to me with cross-drilled discs. New brake pads have been fitted, so that eliminates glazed pads. I am relatively happy with the brakes but as the old saying goes. 'there is always room for improvement'. When compared with the super-stop brakes of my old citroen Berlingo however, or even my old series 1 Discovery, they just don't compare for some reason. I have an alloy master cylinder (original 1988 90 turbo diesel type?) which now sits in front of a tandem Discovery servo after we upgraded it from the dustbin sized original in an attempt to improve the braking. I purchased the more slimmer steel master cylinder that would normally have fitted in front on the discovery servo but we have yet to fit it. I was just wondering if i should approach the problem from the 'top' as it were, or from the 'bottom'. Any ideas would be welcome, ta.

All Ninety and One Tens had disc front. Only drum on the rear. It is therefore uncommon to change the front axle.

Standard brakes should be more than up to the task. If they aren’t. There is probably an issue that bigger callipers aren’t likely to solve. You should only need to upgrade them if you are racing or running some crazy HP motor with lots of high speed stops.

I would start with a making sure the caliper is fully functional and does not have any stuck/rusted pistons. I have rebuilt all of my callipers with stainless pistons. Then once confirmed the calliper is in good working order fit a set of reputable new pads. I once fitted new pads after an MOT fail on wear only for it to fail the retest on performance (passed on the worn ones). not all pads are equal and although they are slightly more expensive the Genuine land rover pads are about the best you can get. Land rover disc brakes in good condition with quality pads are very good and should stop you as well and any other vehicle.

Start with doing above, making sure all pistons are free and check vac pump is doing its job.
The fact that truck has cross-drilled discs only shows the brakes have been altered before.
For normal driving they do little extra for braking and are something of a gimmick unless you are driving and braking hard all the time like a race driver. As for offroad the grooves holes just fill with mud.
Ninety's had smaller calipers and tires [205's standard] than One Tens, but when Defender tdi models came out the SWB models also came with the larger so called "oneten" caliper.
If not already done a swap to "Oneten" calipers is just a nut and bolt job and will help if larger tires are now fitted.
As 300bhp/ton suggests other issues may be at play given the mix of parts.

My son has a Ninety with standard disc and drum set up, works pretty good if you adjust the drums every now and again.
Sometimes wonder a mishmash upgrade just makes things worse.

tottot said:

Start with doing above, making sure all pistons are free and check vac pump is doing its job.
The fact that truck has cross-drilled discs only shows the brakes have been altered before.
For normal driving they do little extra for braking and are something of a gimmick unless you are driving and braking hard all the time like a race driver. As for offroad the grooves holes just fill with mud.
Ninety's had smaller calipers and tires [205's standard] than One Tens, but when Defender tdi models came out the SWB models also came with the larger so called "oneten" caliper.
If not already done a swap to "Oneten" calipers is just a nut and bolt job and will help if larger tires are now fitted.
As 300bhp/ton suggests other issues may be at play given the mix of parts.

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Thanks everybody. something to think about. Genuine pads will be the 1st thing I'll try. I'm thinking the previous owner who had removed the Turbo D & installed something more exciting probably figured a complete Rangie axle swap versus their aging 90 axles, front callipers & drum braked rear along with cross drilled discs would cover most of the bases on 18" Discovery wheels/old style BF Goodrich all terrains with very wide spacers/adapters (now all returned to wolf wheels & sensible sized tyres). A good time indicator is the Santana g/box instead of the R380 suggesting R380's were just not available back then. Yup, my non-standard 90 is a true dinosaur for sure (who dosen't like dinosaurs!) & I've been donning my Sherlock Holmes cap regularly ever since. I'm still curious about the wide diameter countersunk Allen key headed screws on the driving flanges. Hardened shafts - or just standard classic Rangie? Are the front 110 callipers bigger than Rangie classic fronts? Any Range Rover owners out there?

rubix101 said:

<snip> Any Range Rover owners out there?

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They will likely be lurking in the Range Rover forum perhaps ?

Some pics of your set up may answer some questions.

Post some pictures. Also remember a Range Rover weighs more than a Ninety and mostly was fitted with a V8 with 180hp+. Therefore is is logical to assume RR brakes would be more than up to the job.

miktdish said:

They will likely be lurking in the Range Rover forum perhaps ?

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Ha, ha. Yes, you are quite correct & I am guilty of being lazy I guess but I was hoping some 90/110 owners may also have a Rangie lurking nearby as a 2nd vehicle & may have been able to shed some light on the subject. I've had quite a mish-mash of vehicles around me over the years, mostly from the Landrover stable including more than one Rangie Classic but have yet to dig out the axles amongst other bits & bobs I have kept from them after their demise - all of them cheap good servants at the time as nobody wanted them coz of their V8's (I wish now I had kept at least one of the early 2 doors!). The choice was simple within my £500.00 budget. Either a very tired diesel Discovery with starship mileages on the odometer with all of the inherent mechanical wear/rust problems, or usually a low mileage V8 Rangie classic which often only required putting fuel in it whilst rarely did anything break. I had my last V8 2 door discovery for 10 years & put loads of miles hauling tons of stuff & apart from servicing costs/brakes, the only thing i replaced was its water pump. Maybe I've been lucky, but this has been my experience.