Struck by terror and disaster

Theo’s Landie asks, quite emphatically, for some attention to its brakes

I spent much of spring faffing about in the IIA’s engine bay trying to sort out a fuelling issue, and the brakes weren’t happy about it. Glug – that’s what I call my beloved Landie – was now pulling to one side, one drum was becoming hot to the touch and the cab was filling with a very odd whiff. To make matters worse, the MoT had expired, too.

So I whipped off the brake drum to expose the slave cylinders – two in this case, top and bottom. I coaxed one back to life but the other was knackered, so I decided to replace the pair. That meant removing the hoses at the back of the drum, and grappling with the mighty springs which hold the shoes in place. It had been a few years since I’d tackled it so re-discovering the knack was an ordeal, but it’s simple enough once you’ve worked it out. Some new cylinders arrived the following morning (courtesy of xplorworldwide.com) and I was able to bolt the whole assembly back together, bleed the brakes, and make haste for the MoT station.

The journey was terrifying. Braking required two feet; one to depress the pedal and one underneath to lift it again. I assumed I hadn’t bled the system properly, or that I’d messed up the shoe adjusters somehow.

Predictably, the test was a disaster. The handbrake was weak, and another brake cylinder was binding on the opposite wheel, but I was reluctant to let someone else finish my bad job. Fortunately the guys at Ellingworth’s Garage in Peterborough were happy for me crack on with the work outside.

Tightening the handbrake mechanism was easy enough, but renewing the slave cylinders was typically awkward. The dodgy brake pedal was the conundrum. No more air was coming from the hydraulics, and the shoes seemed to be adjusted correctly. It turned out that the pedal pivot had seized. Eventually, after drowning it in penetrating fluid, disconnecting its spring and waggling it for an eternity, smoothness was restored, and soon after I was bouncing home with an MoT pass certificate on the passenger seat.

And I needed it, because Glug had an important duty to perform, later that week...

Having spent months in the depths of Glug’s engine bay, it was time to attend to the brakes.

The now-closed Ellingworth’s allowed our man to fettle the SIIA outside its premises.

Disassembling a Series IIA’s brakes turned out to be a bit of an ordeal, but all’s well now.