brakes...

ISTR that Nige had a similar problem on the Norfolk AFL meet .. though thinking about it, it might have been a duff vacuum pump??

Only time I've ever lost brakes completely was at the end of Park straight at Cadwell Park .. when I was passengering a GSX1100 powered sidecar .. went straight on and I bust four ribs and collar bone when it stopped, and I didn't quite!!

On or around 18 Apr 2009 07:48:33 GMT, "Paul - xxx" enlightened us thusly:

Vacuum pumps on the 300 TDi are s**te, and when they go you need a strong right leg to get any brake at all.

ooops.

I'm still not convinced you need to change the fluid every 2 years, TBH. This is the first time I've had this particular one in 20+ years of driving around in miscellaneous old bangers, and I've never yet actually done a brake fluid change other than when rebuilding a brake system.

I know the stuff's hygroscopic, but after all, the system although not sealed is very nearly so. There is the thing about not using fluid that's been opened and kicked around the shed for years, and that I do agree with. I make damned sure that the lid gets put back on the bottle tight and I don't buy huge quantities, I mostly buy smallish bottles when I need it.

Yeah .. brake pipe sheared off at the master cylinder so all fluid pumped out .. stuff happens .. ;)

Did my Disco when I first got it, but no worries since .. not even needed topping up, despite a couple of pad changes and an almost sheared bleed nipple! Large (relatively) reservoir helps with this, I imagine.

Sinilar here, but not worth messing with, IMHO, 'cos it's cheap enough for the quantities used. I buy enough for what I want to do and bin the rest nowadays.

On or around Sat, 18 Apr 2009 00:09:38 +0100, Austin Shackles enlightened us thusly:

Spent an enjoyable day in the sun changing the front ones, it's now got vented discs, new calipers and pads, and I sucked all the fluid out with my cunning thing-that-sucks-fluid before changing them, then bled new fluid down to the 2 fronts, then bled some more new fluid through the 2 back bleeds. all in all almost a litre of fluid gone into it, so I reckon it's pretty much all new now.

'course, the new front pads need bedding in, but that takes a lot less time than the old drums used to. It's already stopping better than it was.

The caliper that overheated still smelt of burnt brakes 3 days after the incident, no wonder the bloody fluid boiled. The front discs were quite shagged, so would've needed changing soon, and the front pads were pretty well down too.

Did you fit vented to a non-vented axle? I was wondering if the calipers etc on my rangie could be changed for the later vented type.

Alex

A mate's also done this to a Disco 300 V8. IIRC the only thing different was the calipers . caliper bolts and discs themselves .. everything else was the same.

If you have Rave and/or Microcat have a look at part numbers.

On or around 19 Apr 2009 07:52:00 GMT, "Paul - xxx" enlightened us thusly:

Caliper bolts are the same too, provided you have the right type of caliper, i.e. one from the correct age/type of motor. The only difference in the caliper (Britprat, in this case) is a plate in between the 2 sides. Disc mount is the same, Caliper mounts are the same.

The early disco, like the classic RR, has 2 pipes to each front caliper. Some things don't, like later discos, for example. Make sure you get the right calipers.

Also, I believe you should notify the insurance company that you've fitted (better) non-standard brakes.

The pads and fitting kits are different - the pads from the non-vented ones don't fit the vented ones: same size, different type of pins. So make sure you have the right pads/pad fitting kit too.

All went very smoothly, but then I did look into it and get a set of parts which all matched, when I first bought 'em.