Category: brakes

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Slow Down, Part Duex: Electric Boogaloo (Post #343) 5/25/2013

As I mentioned in my post Slow Down, Buy Fewer Tools to Fix Your Mistakes I cross threaded one of the bolts that is used to mount the brake caliper to the hub. This brake caliper is the one I posted pics of that had completely rusted over. I used my new sandblasting cabinet to remove most of the rust.

I learned that the bolts for the caliper are a common 7×20. I put some oil on the tap to collect the metal bits that are cleaned off when the tap does its magic. As you are aware, you turn left and then turn back, easing your way into the bungled threads.

Here the caliper is back in place and the brake pads are back in place. I am breaking one of the cotter pin rules, “Never reuse a cotter pin.” by reusing the pins for the brakes. I did not plan to have the brakes out so I didn’t source the parts for this job.

The tapping went fabulously well after a bit of a rough start. I put the painted brake calipers on. As I mentioned before I had to replace the left (driver’s) side caliper. It had failed. The cylinders had rusted in place and were not actuating to apply the pads to the brake disc.

I will put the Range Rover through he paces this weekend when I take her out for a test drive.

The comedian DC Benny checked on us via email. He is a on-again, off-again Land Rover owner. Owning a Range Rover Classic in Brooklyn without a garage to work on it is a special kind of dedication. His wife lost her home business when the basement of their home was flooded by Super Storm Sandy. It was good to hear from him.

I collected a couple of comebacks for my cross country concerns with corrugated conveyances. (See what I did there? Do ya? do ya?) I need to check the forums and see what else they have to share.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Brake Caliper Problem Solved (Post #282) 1/16/2012

We had an uncharacteristically warm Saturday just in time for me to sort out the problem with the brake caliper on the Range Rover. As you may remember I came home to find this in my driveway.

As you can imagine it was very disappointing. I knew it was behaving like a warped rotor. As I mentioned in my previous post those rotors were brand new. I got the parts in and found brake fluid at a store I normally don’t shop in, Pep Boys. Its good to know someone around here stocks Castrol LMA Dot 4 brake fluid.

As I mentioned Saturday morning came around and I pulled the Range Rover into the garage with only the hand brake to slow me down. I ordered brake calipers for the entire rear axle. I figured if one had failed the other would be near enough to fail as well. My son’s friend “Scuba” wanted to learn about brakes so I told him to come over when he was ready. I started and not long after he wandered in. He is studying mechanical engineering and would like to be a automotive designer/engineer for BMW after he graduates.

So back to the caliper. I got her jacked up and got the tire off and started looking at what might have happened. What I found was very, very disappointing.

I noticed a wear mark on the rotor.

The wear marks are only on part of the rotor. This would account for the whomp, whomp sound. So I looked at the brake caliper. The brake pad was dragging on the rotor. This is not designed to happen. So I looked at the caliper for an explanation.

The brake caliper had two distinct wear marks. With the caliper in place the brake pads were definitely rubbing on the rotor. I showed Scuba how the caliper works and we thought about the design and what might have failed. I decided to fit the new caliper and see if we had the same conditions.

With the new caliper in place we didn’t see any contact between the rotor and the pad. as I was looking at the setup I noticed something not quite right.

There was a gap between the rotor and the hub. There should not be a gap there. I examined it even more closely and noticed the hub and rotor were touching on the opposite side. But on this side they were separated.

This causes rotor to wobble and as it was rotating it was causing vibration and parts that have very tight clearances were now rubbing on each other. This caused a couple of bolts to be shaved off a bit.

I removed the hub and rotor and found even more damage. The ABS ring was also not properly attached to the rotor. That was apparent from the nyloc nuts that were not properly tightened down.

You can see everything the the following picture. How it stayed together I will never know.

It goes without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. The brake rotor was scorched and had to be replaced. The brake pads were ruined from heat. The brake caliper seal had failed and need to be replaced or refurbished. I had sourced that part but the pads and the rotor were another thing.

I went to O’Reilly’s Auto and they told me they didn’t have one in any store or in the warehouse. I went out to the parking lot and called NAPA Auto. The kid there told me they had pads and rotors in the warehouse and could have them brought to the store in Norman by Monday. The good news in this is the warehouse is in Edmond. So I called the kid back and told him I’d just drive up there (35 minutes) and pick them up myself. So I did. Ricky was fun to chat with as they pulled my parts.

I headed home and found myself on the road where my family is buried. I stopped to see the burial plot. I didn’t stay long.

I got back to the garage and started disassembling and reassembling the parts. In the reassembly I used red thread locker on the bolts that go in to the ABS ring. I used blue thread locker on EVERYTHING ELSE.

I had lost an entire quart of brake fluid. I emptied the full contents of the bottle into the reservoir. Scuba pumped the brake peddle as I bled the air out of the line and caliper. We hopped in and took her for a ride around the block. All was well.

Conclusion.
How on earth did those bolts come out? I know for sure that I tightened the bolts. I remember how I rigged up the breaker bar. I remember the reassembly. There was no thread locker on the bolts when I disassembled it. This was the main reason for not putting any on when I initially did the brake rotors.

I will definitely have the driver’s side rear off to check for assembly. If this could occur on the passenger side it could occur on the driver’s side.  Better to find the problem before it destroys that side.

I have had nothing but trouble with that corner (passenger side) of the Range Rover since I did the last restoration. Was I exceptionally tired that day? Was I loco de color that day? It was exceptionally hot that summer.

Well that is all. I have a few other projects that demand attention. First and foremost is the driver’s side door handle. My son Diet Mtn Drew managed to nearly rip it off when he borrowed the the Range Rover while his Scion was in the shop. The main problem is the latch needs adjustment. I will look at that when I pull the door card and sort out the bad handle. I also have to fixed the faulty brake peddle switch.

School starts back on Tuesday. My next free time will be during Spring Break. Let’s hope nothing breaks before then.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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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!?

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Happy New Year, Whoa! (Post #279) 1/2/2012

I say whoa because here in the middle states “whoa” is the command you give a horse to slow down or stop depending on the pull of the reigns. “Whoa” is also what goes through your head when you press on the brakes in your Range Rover and they surge like you have a warped brake disc.

I put those discs on just this summer. They haven’t had a thousand miles on them yet and that’s pretty disappointing. I’m going to remove them and have them machined down. Its a job I can’t get to right now as my garage is not yet reclaimed from all the stuff that didn’t make it into the garage sale after mom’s funeral.

I also need to adjust the upper rear lift gate. It has a nasty habit of popping open when the body flexes as when we go over the rail road tracks on Robinson street or over a water erosion formation out in the pasture. I think I can back it out just a bit and not try for such a tight fit.

Taking advantage of the beautiful weather on New Year’s Eve it was a very unseasonable 70F, we planned to go shooting. RovErica’s boyfriend is home on leave from serving in the U.S. Marine Corps water taxi service. In actuality, he serves aboard the USS Guardian. And from the picture you can surmise he’s stationed in Japan, as that is Mount Fujiyama in the background.

Our gracious host has some very nice weapons and we took full advantage of the fun provided by shooting some of the classic weapons of the greatest generation. We shot a Thompson, BAR, and some other toys that I brought.

RovErica is my only child who enjoys the shooting sports. She especially likes to shoot the M-1 Garand but she only shoots it a few times before she is done. I made her shoot it “one more time” so I could get some video. Before you beat up on me for being mean to her during the video she is tougher than she might look. And don’t worry Momma was there so I couldn’t be too mean to her without feeling her wrath.

Chris brought his little brother and together the put on a pretty good display of shooting for rookies. I was quoted at one point as saying to Chris, “You shoot pretty good for a squid.” He actually does shoot well and put on a display with the BAR by pushing the rubber target up the berm.

RovErica really likes shooting my .22 revolver. She asked me to leave it to her in my will. I’m pretty sure the other kids will give her all the guns. That might change if any of my grand kids like shooting with their PawPaw. We shall see.

We finished off the New Year’s Eve activities by having our friends the Fisher’s over. We do this nearly every year. Neither of us have to be out or driving we live just 3 houses away. They brought a new game this year. Name 5 is pretty fun. The gist of it was you draw a card and it has subjects on it and you have to name five of what ever the subject is.
Name five college sports teams.
Easy right? A couple we found fun were name five kinds of house plants. Being that we don’t have green thumbs we couldn’t come up with five. The other team can challenge your answers and if it is deemed not a acceptable answer you lose. On the house plants my wife answered Marijuana. Between Mrs. OkieRover and I we could name 6 people from our past that grew that in their home. Hell, my brother grew it in his closet at my mom and dad’s home when we were growing up. It was deem unacceptable and so we lost that round.

It seemed when the other team would get name five colors, we would get name five Ethiopian Nobel Prize candidates from the first half of the 20th century. Or they would get name five letters in the alphabet, and we would get name five Popes from the Middle Ages who weren’t born in Italy. It a pretty good time. We finished up with some Wii Archery, Bowling, and Fencing Speed Slicing. Good times.

As I watch Mrs. OkieRover put away the Christmas decorations and the Dallas Cowboys getting thumped by the New York Football Giants I wish you all a Happy New Year. Let’s have a really good one this year and let it be full of awesomeness.

As far as resolutions…eh, I have decided to get into better shape. My man boobs have grown to B cup size and that’s just not acceptable. The weight loss I have enjoyed has slipped around 15 pounds. I need to get it back off.
Name five exercises that will get you back into shape if you just do them.
Name five projects the Range Rover needs done so I can get her out on some four wheeling trips this Spring.

Thanks for reading, Happy New Year, and Happy Rovering.

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Uggggh! Electrical Problems (Post #220) 11/15/2010

I love electrical problems. I love them like I love ingrown toenails. I love them like I love getting speeding tickets. I love them like I love getting phone calls from my children telling me they have dropped ANOTHER cell phone in a toilet or a sink at work or jumped in the swimming pool with it in their pocket.

Lately my electrical problems have been related to the transmission system. When I pull the shifter to change gears the warning tone goes off. Here is the page from the Range Rover Owner’s Manual 1993, Page 41.

Just before I took the Range Rover out of service RovErica and I had been seeing the odd Code 69. And during the really, really cold weather the tone would sound randomly. DietMtDrew thought that was, “the coolest code ever”. Great, teenage boys, I’m pretty sure that is something he and I should talk about. Anyway, it looks like I have something going on with the switches and monitoring of my transmission.

I am guessing the next thing is to find all the electrics and check the connections. Right now the engine and transmission are hot and will need to cool. With the weather change outside that will be easy. Today the temp outside was 57 (F) degrees. It is interesting that when I started this project the temperature is 107 (F) outside. By the time I finish this project, and I say finish in a “finish for now” sorta way, the temperature will be closer to 37 (F) outside.

The engine and transmission were hot, because I swapped the transmission fluid in the transmission. And after I swapped it I went for a little drive. The fluid that came out was a nasty color and had a burnt smell. That was totally expected. If you have read the blog you know I burnt four gear pulling the camping trailer back from Fort Sill where I took possession from military surplus.

I ran an errand early this afternoon to fill up my wife’s Honda CRV with petrol and while I was out I bought a gallon of Mercon/Dex-a-something-or-other. I read a blog post where swapping the fluid was as easy as dropping the fluid and pouring in a gallon of new fluid. It took a little more than a gallon to top her off.

While I was working on replacing the center console I managed to damage the emergency brake position switch. And now it’s broke. I’ll get to that after I sort out the last of my lovely electrical issues, brake light. The last time I shut the Rover down all was well. When I started her up this time, I have a nagging brake light illuminated in the warning lights. Nothing has changed in that system from the last time I drove her so I’ll have to get under and check all the sensors and pray I find a loose wire somewhere. It’s a lead pipe cinch it’s not the emergency brake position switch.

Thanks for reading and Happy Rovering.

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Imagine the fluid level sensor plug WTH? (Post #208) 10/11/2010

Google honored John Lennon’s 70th birthday on October 9th. My own birthday is on October 11th. In the real world my ideology doesn’t line up with John’s. I do like his music and not counting the thousand of so times we heard the songs when my oldest brother and sister played the songs in the early 1970s, I spent three summers in the late 1970s listening to the Beatles and John Lennon’s music. My brother was a huge fan and that’s all we played on the turntable.

So with that let me begin the post…
Imagine you are looking at your handy work from the previous day.
Imagine that you see that you forgot to connect a plug and you reach out and grab the plug.
Imagine that just as you turn the plug to reconnect it, one of the wires breaks.
Imagine that as you turn it back to you to see the end, another wire breaks.
Image how pissed you are at that point.

If one of the neighbor kids weren’t in the garage telling me about how his dad burped the BMW cooling system and cured his overheating I would have gone on a explicative laden tirade. That is not supposed to happen. Well it’s not supposed to happen, but it does on Land Rovers. Matter of fact I would be comfortable in saying anyone who has ever worked on their Land Rover has had this happen.

You could see the corrosion on the wires. It was so corroded that even a few millimeters down the wire it was still corroded.

To get this fixed I would have to take the wire connectors out of the plug housing. Normally these connectors are held in place by a tab on the plug which fits in a channel on the plug housing. Getting the tab recessed and the plug out is usually not too bad. I had to struggle with these a bit.

The plug housing had clip that had to be pried open.

I was hoping the connectors would just slide right out after I had the clip open. No such luck was to be had. I got out a small pair of very narrow needle nosed pliers. I had them inserted and with a little effort finally got the connectors out.

I now had to get the wires connected. I used a small screwdriver to get the wire end opened up to hold the wire once I got it cut and stripped. I decided to solder the connectors to get a better connection. That was good except the worst of the corroded wires would not hold solder. I tried to clean it with flux but that didn’t work. I finally decided to just crimp it in place. There was really no other choice.

I guess I could get new connectors but I’m not sure where I would find them. I know everything is available somewhere, but it’s the looking that makes it hard. Back in the day I would just drive down to Radio Shack and pick up a matching connector and crimp them in place. But I’m not as impressed with the available parts at my neighborhood Radio Shack.

So I just slipped some new heat shrink on the wires and did what I could with what I had. The good news is it is working, at least for now.

On a side note you can see my experiment of putting the O rings into brake fluid there on the fender. It turned that the O ring didn’t dissolve. And the growth after it was wet with brake fluid was acceptable. I would even say it expanded just enough to make a good seal. While digging for a wrench in my on-board tool kit I found my spare ABS pressure switch. I had forgotten I had it in the on-board tool kit. I will probably move it to the parts shelf. In any event there was a good O ring on the unit and now I know I have a spare.

Thanks for reading imagining and Happy Rovering.

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