Ciaran

Its interesting that this shuttle valve does seem to cause rather strong opinions - perhaps due to the arguably needless inconvenience when bleeding the brakes. I have by now confirmed that the 5 port device I needed had part number 599443 - and within an hour of visiting Dunsfold I had one fitted to the landy, and was setting about bleeding the brakes. Got to say, that the bleeding was as simple as could be - all it took was a firm but slow moving foot on the pedal and the new shuttle valve didn't budge at all. Before my venture into the wonderful 80W90 world of Landys - my background was with american cars, mainly those dated round the tail end of the 60's and early 70's. I have yet to see one american mass produced car that DOESN'T have a shuttle valve (equivalent) fitted. They all do. The only one thing that GM added to all their valve parts was a nose cone push rod which effectively locks the shuttle into a fixed position to make bleeding the hydraulics easier. It may be mandated by federal law, but someone out there obviously thinks they are rather a good thing. One other respondent above (and thanks to you all - your comments were very welcome) asked about a ball bearing - which the haynes manual mentions. I'm sorry this won't help you - but I did strip the switch out of the new 599443 part before fitting it in order to measure that ball bearing size for you - but found that there actually is no ball bearing in the design of this part. Obviously the BB was only fitted to a different shuttle valve part. Thanks again all This is a superb source of knowledge Ciaran

I've got a problem identifying a part - and boy could I ever use some help from the smart folks on this forum I have a series 3 hybrid. Er... very much a hybrid. On the braking side, its got a series III (LWB) master cylinder (2 ports output) - coupled with Range Rover classic Axels and caliper brakes (front and back). The two brake fluid pipes from the master cylinder connect to a differential pressure warning actuator (DPWA) which has three output ports (and an electrical switch which activates if there is a significant pressure imbalance between the front and rear circuit). Out of the three ports, two connect to the front brakes, and one connects to the rear brakes. The DPWA block has failed. Internally the seals have broken down, and fluid at pressure is leaking out of the electrical switch. No amount of sealing cures the problem. See attached image of the failed part. Ok - so I looked at the land rover parts book for Series III, and figured that a suitable replacement would be an NRC4880, only to find when it arrived today that NRC4880 has just four brake fluid ports and not five. The one on the front shown as output 1 of 2 in my picture is missing. There are no markings on the failed unit itself other than "Girling" and the number "0006" on the reverse side - which incidentally are also on the wrong part NRC4880. I'm stuck to figure out what part to order ? I know these parts have a bad reputation (they make bleeding... tricky) but ideally I'd like to replace it with the working (albeit now faulty) part. Has anyone else experienced problems with this part - and if so, how did they approach a fix for it ? Any comments very gratefully received. Ciaran

Yeah, tried that - but thanks for the suggestion. The standard series III release bearing (and I'm talking about the better quality one, rather than the piece of ???? cheap plastic nasty one use a very slightly larger bearing (ID of the inner sleeve) - perhaps 0.5mm too big. It was worth doing, because I got the chance to see the ball race on the old one. I realised that a good clean and repack with grease would do the trick. Mind you, next time I probably won't be so lucky Jeez - I love this web site. Loads of folks who really do know what they're talking about is a bit of a gift to a newbi like me :-)

I think you're right. In fact, the bearing can be pulled off the metal part of the shell - given its a nice interference fit. After I'd pulled the bearing off, I realised (after cleaning) that it was in very good shape - but just needed repacking with hi melt grease. So, I've carefully measured the unit, and rebuilt it. In the worst case, I can either pull a bearing of a standard series 3, and refit it onto a newly machined part - but that'll be a job for the next time the box comes out. Forgive me not replying sooner. Its been a lot of very late nights working on this - and I haven't checked in as often as I should.

Hi everyone. I have a rebuilt Series III hybrid vehicle. Fitted with a range rover V8, a modified crank and adapter between the engine and gearbox bellhosing. The gearbox is a series III suffix C, and the clutch disk and pressure plate are series III (petrol) 9.5". The fun starts with the release bearing. The vehicle has been running for quite a few years now without major problems, but the clutch disk needed renewing, and the release bearing was slightly noisy. There was also an odd occassional problem with the gearbox jumping out of 4th gear (which I think I have separately cured). I ordered a new clutch disk and a new standard series III release bearing, fitted everything up, and then hoisted the gearbox back into the engine. I then spent the next three days rebuilding the interior and all the electrics (its injected) only to find when I bled the clutch, that the release bearing is too short. Basically - the clutch fork is bottoming out before the clutch can press the splines of the pressure plate. On the clutch release bearing - if you measure the distance from the front part to the shoulder that the clutch fork sits on, there is a 3/4" difference. The original (albeit noisy) part is much longer. Its also an all steel affair. No plastic in this one. My question for you knowledgable folks out there, is do any of you recognize where this might have come from (thinking in terms of refurbishing the bearing etc) ? I've attached a picture showing the larger original release bearing Any comments or thoughts are very welcome Ciaran