This is some seriously good news! (Post #281) 1/6/2012

I have long believed that the Classic’s ABS pump was rebuildable. It is just an electric motor and a pump mechanism. I personally believe there should be a pump on the Classic that was good for at least two hours of constant running. Perhaps a type of PTO from the motor, nevermind, but that really doesn’t make much sense. I’ve even kicked around in my head building a circuit to light an LED on the dash when the bloody pump is running. All this just so I can catch a failure before it happens. In any event, the pumps are (IMHO) weak and the relays they use can fail and leave you without brakes as you know them.

If you read enough message boards you will see many guys talking about removing the ABS and going to “standard brakes”. Mostly this is because of this failure and the cost of repair. ABS has its place in the universe and I can respect that. But I’d hope it would, in the future, be more reliable over the life of the vehicle. I received an email from George a fellow Rover owner down in Australia a while back and we kicked this subject back and forth.

So today, I’m checking my email and lo and behold I get the following email from my mate down under, George D’Onofrio.

Hey Eric!
Happy New Year!
Just letting you know that ABS pumps ARE repairable!
Got mine back from Al Cowan after a $US378 overhaul (vs $1500 new):
http://www.falconworks.net/britold/brit.htm
along with a new accumulator and 2 new relays.

I held off replacing the accumulator as I wanted to see what it did with a decent pump. The howling has stopped (bearing?) and all I hear is a buzz like a mosquito in my ear. I can also hear the relay click when it starts/stops. AND The Three Amigos have ridden off into the sunset too!

Stationary, I get 3-4 pedal pushes before the pump starts and it only runs for 2-3 secs. On the road, it starts when the brake pedal gets a good push but it stops pretty quickly.

By referring to Al’s bible:  I’ve concluded the accumulator is getting near the end of its days but I’m due to change the brake fluid this year so I’ll replace it then.
Cheers George

Thanks George!

Okay my first observation…HOW THE HELL HAVE I MISSED THIS SITE?

This is a great trove of Land Rover information and I have never seen it? I may have to go back to a Google Search 101 class. I really like this site, well except it looks like it was coded by a 13 year old girl. It is chock full of great info. So much so I’m going to put it on the link section.

So thanks to George and thanks to the fun folks at Falcon Works. If I had known about you when we were trekking across the country in the Disco 2 back in 2008 I would have stopped by. We DROVE RIGHT BY THE PLACE! Ugggh! My pal Dave has been begging us to come back out to California so perhaps we’ll stop by on our way home.

Check them out and if you buy something tell them you saw it on OkieRover’s blog. They don’t know me from Adam’s house cat, but I’d like them to know where the referrals are coming from.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

PS. wow this post just just crammed with jargony goodness, wasn’t it!?