X-Eng Brake for Discovery

[Disco-Ron]

This X-Brake has caused me more grief.

I purchased the brake earlier this year but never got around to fitting it. When I was at Billing I went to the X-Eng stand and purchased the reccomended 200Tdi cable to complete the instalation. I made it crystal clear that my vehicle is a 300 series LHD V8 Discovery with R380 box etc.

Perhaps there is are different versions of a 200 Tdi cable because the one I purchased from X-Eng will not fit without first having it modified and making extra brackets etc.

I'm not 100% certain of the problem yet because I haven't seen the car, but Gordon called me yesterday to say that they needed to make extra brackets etc to support the cable and make it fit through the floor.

So on top of the purchase price for the X-Brake I have had to pay my work shop an extra 125 quid to take out the center console, make a bracket, faff around with 2lb hammers on the floor seam that was interferring with the mountings etc.

It doesn't say anything about this in the instructions for the 'export' version.

I'd donate my left nut to science if anyone can fit one of these things to a Discovery from scratch in 45 minutes.

Well, if they're charging you 'extra' for removing the centre consol, they shouldn;t be, as they more than likely would have had to remove that anyways to change the cable...... and as far as the handbrake lever goes, i simply used one from a 200......... and drilled another hole in the tunnel......

[streaky]

From what I understand you only have to pull back the gaitor to access the pin Ron. But the console had to be removed to install the new mounting bracket that was fabricated.

What I'm saying is....the instructions didn't say that the console had to come out so I didn't budget for that part of the job. I presumed that because I'd got the 200TDi cable directly from X-Eng it would fit without any unforeseen modifications.

I think 45 minutes (or there abouts)might be right for a Defender...but not a Discovery.

At the end of the day the brake is now fitted and i've had my rant. X-Eng is one of the best companies at taking customers comments and building on them for others benefits.

I still haven't been able to get down to the workshop to see the situation for myself, once I've had a look I might be able to describe the problem in more detail.

As for the winching part...my winching is usually for self recovery purposes so I have to be in the car anyway. You have a good point though....is this a weak point of the X-Brake compared to the original transmission drum brake?

[streaky]

I picked up the car yesterday afternoon.

The travel on the hand brake is incredible....it has to be nearly vertical before the hand brake bites. The workshop spent two hours trying different positions of the linkage to get the right position but to no avail.

Conclusion is definatly the wrong cable. Email sent to supplier...two days before the biggest Rally of the year I don't need more problems to rob me of my precious time!

[simonr]

Streaky - sorry you've had problems.

Firstly, the 45mins fitting time is from my own experience - and yes I have fitted one to a 200 and a 300 disco within 45mins. To be fair though, I have fitted a couple of dozen now - so I have an idea what I'm doing and they went without problems.

Some vehicles need a bit of 'adjusting' to clear the bodywork - but others do not. My conclusion was that it was a mixture of the exhaust position plus the relative heights of the gearbox and body mounts.

If we were to rotate the bracket round the clear the exhaust, it becomes closer to the body - and vice versa. Where it is, is a compromise, but hopefully not too bad a one.

There is a lot of variation in cable lengths - and to solve that, our cables are specially made by a company called RDB 93 Ltd, so I can guarantee they are all the same length. Any differences in the apparent length must be down to differences between on Land Rover and another.

I'd be interested to see what these brackets your shop had to make are? In my experience, there is no requirement to make additional brackets. If there was, they would be supplied with the kit. Do you have any details / photos?

If your cable length issue is due to these brackets, and they have been designed by a third party - then it's difficult for X-Eng to warranty that it will work!

However, if there is a general problem (as opposed to random tolerances) with a certain model or year, so long as we can get hold of a truck to play with - then we will release a revision to cope with it.

I despair sometimes at the differences between two apparently identical trucks. Land Rover seem to randomly adjust things just to be difficult!

Lastly, the winching against the brake thing. It's not that the brake won't hold - it will. It's that the transmission is just not designed to take the kind of torque you can develop with a winch. It is possible to tear prop shaft UJ's apart, tear the X-Brake back plate off the speedo housing, tear the speedo housing off the transfer case, twist splines in the prop or transfer output. If you are lucky - you may just bend the disk or back plate!

We had an instance of a twisted prop shaft and cracked speedo housing from a customer. They felt that because X-Eng did not specifically say it might damage their truck - we ought to be liable for the damage caused. Hense, the instructions were ammended - so if you do it, it's at your own risk. It's a bit like the "Drink may be hot and burn you if you pour it over your face" warning.

Si

[streaky]

Hi Simon.

Thx for the response via email and also for putting this up for all to see.

I won't get the chance to take any pictures untill after next week. We have the Desert Challenge starting this week which puts me out in the desert for 5 or 6 days. Rest assured I'll crawl under the truck when I get back and hopefully all will become a little clearer.

I'm not so concerned about the problems in getting the actual hardware to fit..that was overcome quite easily by way of a few swings with the hammer. Granted the different tolerences that go with the Solihul products were taken into account with the same hammer.

Re. Brackets.

Because the initial cable supplied by X-Eng wouldn't fit, the workshop had to fabricate the brackets in order to install the cable. It may well be possible that it's these brackets which don't allow for proper adjustment? I couldn't say at this time for sure though.

Maybe when I'm down at the Challenge I can find some time to see the thing for myself.

Thx & regards.

S.