Series 3 How much bleeding do brakes need?

Hi all,

New to Land Rovers - especially Series.

I recently changed all of the following:

• Master Cylinder;
• All 4 wheel cylinders;
• Hard pipes;
• Hoses;
• Unions.

Messed up yesterday by having the master cylinder pushrod incorrectly set - this is now sorted as per Haynes manual.

However, I have gone from solid pedal with brakes all locked on (due to the pushrod setting) to the Pedal now goes to the floor.
Its ok on the second pump of the pedal so I have adjusted the brakes so that they are close but not touching the drums to reduce wheel cylinder travel but the pedal still goes to the floor.

I have been bleeding the brakes as per manual with an eazy bleed kit. Been around the vehicle 5 times and put 2 litres of fluid thru the system and I am still getting micro bubbles coming thru.

There are no leaks - I have checked carefully.

So my question is - just how much bleeding is required after a complete system replacement?

Thanks for help on this.

Make sure air is not being sucked back up through the bleed nipple threads when the pedal is released. They ain’t air tight when loosened. You could try gravity bleeding. It works for me. Not sure if that’s the issue. You’d need s hell of a lot of air not to get some resistance on the first pump.

No pumping on the pedal if using an ezibleed kit, Bob, but I agree that it sounds like air is getting in somewhere.

OP - I've just done the same on mine after a full brake overhaul, I was getting bubbles disappearing quite quickly and definitely didn't go through 2 litres of fluid.I did have to give it 2 or 3 goes to get it all get up and bleed correctly.

In the end I fully retracted all adjusters (to minimise fluid capacity the cylinder) re-bleed (possibly twice), then adjusted the shoes back up to the drums and then double checked the fluid level in the reservoir and have been ok since.

Many thanks, I wonder if I damaged the seals in the MS when the pushrod was incorrectly set.

Gonna try one more bleed tonite, then it's probably another MS.

I fitted a reseal kit to the original master cylinder and have been ok since.

I put a new MS and slave on the clutch a few weeks ago and had all sorts of strange goings on until I manually filled the pipework. Strange things these master cylinders.
I’d defiantly try a gravity bleed though before tearing it to bits again.

'll give gravity a go and see what happens.

I usually do gravity or hand vacuum pump.

had duff wheel cylinders new out the box too sucking air in when the pedal was released

suburban said:

had duff wheel cylinders new out the box too sucking air in when the pedal was released

Click to expand...

Christ alive... How are you supposed to get on with this sort of thing going on?!

Rubins4 said:

Christ alive... How are you supposed to get on with this sort of thing going on?!

Click to expand...

send them back

iirc it was a trw cylinder so I switched to Lockheed Delphi and haven't had any problems with them

Trying to sort a mates brake's a couple of years ago, found that the rear slave's [ he had just fitted ] had bores that were oval !!!!

Must say - there are some very suspect quality parts out there - evnTRW and branded OEM have issues

Have you tried one of the pressure bleed kits you can get. Had a problems with air in mine and was struggling to get the air out. went through ltr of fluid with little improvement,. In the end the pressure kit worked a treat. The best is to reverse bleed and pump from the cylinder up but the one I used used pressure from the wheel and clamped on the Master cylinder. .

I had a similar problem and it turned out there were to many springs on the shoes. I.e. the shoes were being pulled back so you had to pump the pedal to push the shoes into the drum.

On another vehicle I have worked on in the past I found that putting a smear of red rubber grease around the bleed nipple threads stopped air being sucked back in through the threads.

It also hopefully helps stop the nipple corroding in place.

Thanks to all members for your collective experience on this one.

I reverted to the old '2 person' approach on this. Got the Mrs to pump up the footbrake until it was solid, then I cracked open the bleed nipple and shut it again really quickly. Lots and lots of micro air bubbles came gushing out for the first 2 or 3 attempts and then clear fluid.

Brakes are now spot on.

Sailorbill said:

Thanks to all members for your collective experience on this one.

I reverted to the old '2 person' approach on this. Got the Mrs to pump up the footbrake until it was solid, then I cracked open the bleed nipple and shut it again really quickly. Lots and lots of micro air bubbles came gushing out for the first 2 or 3 attempts and then clear fluid.

Brakes are now spot on.

Click to expand...

excellent