The brakes on my disco had some issues when I purchased her.
The initial inspection yielded some interesting data.
The front brake pads showed very little wear.
The rear pads were about 70 percent gone.
When I tried to bleed the system, nothing wanted to come out of the front brakes
It appears that the front brakes weren't doing anything for a while.
Oh, and the fluid was incredibly vile - super contaminated.
Remediation was typical.
Replaced the master cylinder with a new one.
I consider this cheap insurance - it's the heart of the system
Replaced both front calipers with rebuilts
Replaced the front hoses with extended teflon/stainless hoses
The front behaved much better, although the booster seems to be a bit weak
On a short adventure a rear tire chain broke lose and ripped the rear brake line.
Luckily, we had a break in the weather, so I made new lines.
Discovery 1 brake line replacement
Here's what you need to make new lines:
An ISO Bubble Flaring tool set.
I bought this one off amazon.
3/16 brake line. Steel, Copper, doesn't matter. Make sure you get actual brake line. You can get it from Amazon or Napa.
M10 Bubble flare brake line nuts. Get them via Amazon or local.
A pipe cutter. A small one is best. Any hardware store or Amazon
You can use your old brake nuts in a pinch, but they're cheap. I paid .29 each locally.
Remove your old lines, bend the new one to match.
I start by cutting a lenght of brake line that should be longer than the old one.
This makes it easier to work with
Flare one end and install a brake line nut.
Now bend the line to match the old one.
It's very important not to kink the hose. Some people use a socket to bend the line around.
You may want to bolt it to your bench to make life easier.
Once it matches, cut the end to length, add the new nut and flare the line.
Don't forget the nut - you'll have to cut and reflare if you do!
Rear Brake Hoses
The old hoses can be a PAIN!
I found it very tiring to work on the hose mounts as they're over head - at least there is lots of room.
I finally ended up using a cutting blade on my grinder to cut off the end of one of the hoses at the bracket.
It took 5 seconds - I'd wrenched on it for a good 20 minutes!
The good news is that you can reach the top of the pumpkin from the passenger wheel well.
Once you get the old stuff off, and bolt the new hoses up under the boday, you can get out from under the rover.
When I removed the old hoses, I pulled the brass T junction mounted on the axle.
The new extended crown performance hoses were designed to eliminate the T junction!
The problem with this, is that the hoses need to be solidly attached to the axle.
If you don't do something about it, the lines will flex and fail over time.
Fortunately, you can buy brake line brackets. They're used all the time in race cars and custom rods.
I bought a pair of these Jegs clips and brackets via Amazon.
You can bolt them down if you like, I welded mine to a spare piece of steel to make my own mounting bracket.
Then I drilled the center of my new bracket and fitted a new bolt.
The idea is to mount the new bracket to the top of the axle using the old brass T mounting position.
1/4" hardware fits the existing hole in the axle bracket perfectly.
The ends of the hoses are inserted into the bracket and the clips are tapped into place. These hose the ends very securly.
I rebent the ends of the brake lines to point forward - the original T inserted from the side.
My new brake lines made this much easier to do - you may want to plan on new lines if you are swapping hoses!
Brake Bleeding
Bleeding brakes can be a total pain! Here's how to make it better.
Go to the auto store. Buy a european replacement brake reservoir cap that fits the rover.
I bought mine to fit my 86 bmw.
Fit an air compressor disconnect into the cap. It's pretty easy - drill a hole just smaller and thread the fitting right into the plastic.
Overfill the reservoir with brake fluid.
Set your compressor to 25psi or so.
Attache the air line to the brake reservoir
Bleed the brakes in normal style - by yourself!
To make a good bleeding bottle, use a large brake fluid bottle (or whatever). Get some silicon hose from the hardware store. I bought 2 feet of a couple of sizes and checked fit when I got home.
Drill a hole that's slightly smaller than the hose in the lid of you bottle
Clip one end of your hose at a diagonal, and feed it through the lid.
Now you have a great bleeding setup.
Bleed away!
