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The beauty of an X-Eng handbrake


ejparrott

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As you know we're deep into rebuilding our 88 after an RTC, and while doing it I thought I'd take out a few more bolts and fit the recon'd gearbox I've had since November.

Working alone, and not being able to get my hoist near the gearbox to lift it, I thought I'd split the t'box and main box in situ, remove in two pieces, then refit main to engine, followed by t'box to main.

Splitting the joint between t'box and main on a series transmission requires the removal of the intermediate gear cluster in the t'box, and with a standard drum handbrake that would have entailed backing off adjusters, removing the drum and then the backplate, and looking forward to getting the whole damn thing readjusted again afterwards.

Not with an X-Brake!!

I discovered that merely loosing off the 6 nuts holding the brake disc to the drive flange was enough to allow it to just move clear of the exiting shaft, so 2 minutes work, and no adjustments to try and do again!

I'd love to say it was a brilliant investment, but I was given it used by my brother when he changed to LT in his 109, and the first set of pads got soaked in oil, but its been brilliant ever since!! Must get one for The 109, but for now [touch wood] its LR brake is working well [/touch wood]!

Just thought I'd share it with you folks, I was that happy with it!

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Yep, very good bits of kit. Got one on my 90 which is great, and works fabulously with the RRC handbrake lever. The 110 came with one too, number two x-brake I'm led to believe :)

They take some abuse too! I've parked my 90 on some silly hills and it holds it without any creeping. And I'll admit to having winched 30 yards with it on at Seven Sisters last year ^_^

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Oh I will :D. Standard drum is usually full of carp

Ross, how can this be? You don't take it out enough for that to happen :P

Have to agree, the X-brake does reduce the maintenance requirements nicely. Holds well on a slope too, shame the tyres don't grip as well as the HB :lol:

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I think that if you are going down the redundancy route, unless you replicate everything, you are just moving the likely failure point. I would go for two calipers, cables and levers. Maybe a spare driver too! ;)

Si

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Surely an anchor and chain has less chance of a common mode failure - and can be used to substitute for the foot brake as well in an emergency.

Nick.

Interesting solution, a normal hand brake works well where there is a solid surface under the wheels, an anchor would work well for those times you have to park up on mud or other soft surfaces..... although not sure how easy a hill start would be.... :P

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I know the XBrake is OK but what about the cable!!

John

I run a small master cylinder to operate my handbrake caliper. Looks pretty similar to an x-brake, but i've used a LR rear caliper and made my own disc mount by machining up an old drum.

Like the above comments, my problem was the cable filling with **** and thus sticking. My truck only gets used for challenges then sits in the workshop for weeks without really moving, hence stuff siezing up.

*This is not a road legal vehicle.

If i drove a landrover on the road, i'd have an x-brake :)

G

390862_10150441993234882_667984881_10158711_287224549_n.jpg

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Carry a brick.......I used to......

Anybody else remember the 'Gods Must Be Crazy' scene where he parks the old series to open the gate whilst leaving the woman sat in it ?

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