Urgent!! How do we transport our 109???

Hello everybody!
We just bought a 1971 Land Rover 109 Station Waggon where the seller told us that the breakes didn´t work. There was something wrong with the hydraulics hence both the clutch and the brakes were out of order... The problem is that the car needs to be moved tomorrow (approx. 30 kilometers) and our plan was the just tow it with another 4wd car.

Well, now the seller tells us that the handbrake (which we planned to use during the towing) on these cars works not on the brake drums but on the driveshaft. This meaning (according to him) it is more or less like a "on or off" parking brake with no possibility to use for soft breaking during the tow???

Please give us some advice since it´s not legal for us to use a trailer to transport it...

Also - excuse the language since I´m swedish and really not used to explain technical difficulties in english.

Regards from a sunny Sweden!

Have you got a rigid bar you can tow with?

No, unfortunately not...

It looks like the only way is to hire someone to transport it for you

I think you can just buy a rigid tow bar for not a lot of money (in the UK anyway) - have you got something like our Halfords there? (Halfordssons?...)

Well, is it true that the handbrake is worthless for towing?

I mean, we´re talking about really, really slow speed. However, it would feel nice to know that there is at least some way of stopping the car without hitting the car in the other end of the rope...

You can use the engine to brake the car, by putting it in gear when you want to slow down, but it isn't exactly positive. You can use the hand brake at lower speeds too, if you are extremely careful. If you aren't you will break half shafts/diffs/etc

You can't use the handbrake, he is right when he says it is effetively on or off with no gradual in-between.

Just seen yer post too Boydy, with no clutch this would be a painfully slow 30K journey as to have any effect whatsoever it would have to be in first all the way with the engine screaming!

Ok, getting a little bit confused here, but I take it the handbrake is really not made for stopping the car? (Don´t want any broken parts.)

The seller talked about having problems bleeding the brakes and because they use the same hydraulic system as the clutch there could be a problem if I try to stop the car with putting in a gear?

Gosh - I really would need more time to investigate this! The car is parked where there is supposed to be some kind of market/exhibition on saturday and we got a fair price if we promised to move it tomorrow. Since we fell in love with the car we agreed to fix this minor problem... (motormouth is the word I believe in Swedish...)

A rigid bar is not possible to have by tomorrow I´m afraid. More ideas?

If you use the handbrake to stop the car you will almost certainly break important bits of both you and the car!

You won't be able to put the (non running) car in gear without the clutch without a cog shower.

If you can't trailer it, the only options you really have are:

Fix it and drive it

Tow with a rigid bar

Pay someone to put it on their lorry.

Rigid bar is my fave choice (did you notice! ), you can get em in the uk for under £30 (E$50)

Hire something like this -
BEAVER TAIL RECOVERY TRUCK on eBay, also Trailers Transporters, Trailers Transporters, Commercial Vehicles, Cars, Parts Vehicles (end time 18-May-08 21:26:42 BST)

The clutch and brakes arn't the same hydraulic system are they? They aint on my 90. What was the brake bleeding issue? Did he shear off the bleed nipple? Otherwise they will probably work, enough for low speeds.

yeah done similar thing, NEVER PULL HANDBRAKE ON A LANDROVER will 9 out of 10 times snap the drive studds off and judder the **** out of the gear box till it stops or snaps the brake off , the only way would be to slaken the hand break off at the adjusting nuts under the seat box untill its soft with little resistance but enough to stop , other wise yerl end up shunting yer other motor, ouch, gears no good in your case either sorry. deff a lorry job

Thx for all advices! Really like an active forum!

We have tried to rent a lorry today with no success (live on the countryside) but maybe there is a car workshop around where we could rent their rigid bar (assuming they have one). I´ll call them tomorrow!

Regarding the brake bleeding issue we never got any good answer from the seller since someone else had tried to help him and hi didn´t now what the problem was. "Air stuck somewhere in the system" he said and since we have absolutely no experience at all (yet) with these cars, we´re quite lost.

odenne said:

If you use the handbrake to stop the car you will almost certainly break important bits of both you and the car!

You won't be able to put the (non running) car in gear without the clutch without a cog shower.

If you can't trailer it, the only options you really have are:

Fix it and drive it

Tow with a rigid bar

Pay someone to put it on their lorry.

Attach some boat fenders to yer rear bumper and wear a neck brace

Rigid bar is my fave choice (did you notice! ), you can get em in the uk for under £30 (E$50)

Click to expand...

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If it is just 'some air' (i.e. not lots) stuck in the system, then the brakes will be useable, just a bit spongy. Try them very carefully i guess. You will need the engine running to fill the servo with vacuum though. I had air in my brakes for ages, just made them spongy.

Ok, I will go to sleep now. I´m one hour ahead of you and tomorrow will be a hectic day... I´ll let you all know how we managed.

Thanks again!

Just wanted to tell you that today was one of those wonderful days when everything goes right.

It actually turned out that a Hot Rod builder lived only ten minutes away and that he recently bought a car transport lorry for his show-cars... We almost had to convince him to at least charge us for the gas as he just loved the Land Rover! "It´s one of those cars that make you happy when you meet them" he said. We just nodded and thought Great Car!

Now it´s time for some minor problems like missing parts, rust, brakes, fuel pump etc. etc. We probably need to remove the aluminium body from the chassie in order to weld the rust damage, but that´s another story. We´ll be back for sure with more questions.

Cheers!

glad it all went ok for you!

Well done, we like pictures! LOTS AND LOTS, then we will tell you how to fix your rust, we are all very good at it.

On the handbrake topic: it is a transmission brake, it is on the back of the the gearbox, when applied it locks up the transmission so the car can't go anywhere. It is not designed for stopping the car.