Land Rover parking brake

   So I get up today and start moving vehicles around to get the 109 out on the road. I drove the 109 across the street and parked it and set the handbrake, it just rolled backwards................I thought I had it set up properly???

    I had to run an errand in town (more on that later) so I hopped in the 88 and did that. When I came home I changed clothes and crawled under the 109 to adjust the expander. Well it's tight as a nun and won't move in either direction. Off with the brake drum and try again, nothing moves. Off with the brake shoes and pull the adjuster.
   The crud in the pistons won't let them move, I had to pry them out with a screwdriver. Then I cleaned everything up and wirebrushed the bore with my Dremel tool and the pistons with a wire wheel. The adjuster was put in a vise and I used graphite lock lubricator to loosen the screw. This got it going but with a lot of effort on that 1/4" drive head. Putting it all back together with some Phil Wood waterproof grease got everything working properly.
    Then I went to clean the shoes and the drum, it seems some of the oil from the leaking something got on them. Well the shoes are shot.

    After a look in the parts book and the workshop manual I checked online to get updated parts numbers and check prices. A call was placed to Trevor at Rovah Farm, who picked up the phone. A little chit chat and discussion of late and early brake adjuster styles I placed an order. A set of new handbrake shoes #STC3821, a new dust cover(mine was gone) #515466 and the return spring for the handbrake lever(where did that go?) #59663. Ships on Thursday!

     With that out of the way I started work on tiding up the look of my engine bay. I had gone into town to pick up the stainless steel tubing I ordered from George Wilson Plumbing. I had 6' of 5/8"OD x.065wall  tubing. What was in my mind was to replace some of the heater hose with tubing ala Rover. Having only 1 of the 2 sections needed made from steel, I didn't put it in due to heavy rust, I just had hose from head to heater.

        The old tube was used as a template and I blindly followed that. To make my bends I had set a piece of 2" tube in my vise and heated the stainless with a propane torch and formed it around the 2" tube. I used a standard tubing cutter to cut to length. I was careful to keep the heat moving along the tube and this helped with not getting the tube flat in the bend. I also put a 1/2" bolt in the end of the tube where I used it as a fulcrum against the vise. This kept the end from deforming..

The ends were chamfered and the tube wire brushed to clean off the burnish. Because I just followed the orginal tube I had more fiddling to get it to fit my new motor configuration. I wound up bending about a 45 in it and removing 2 other smaller bends. Then it was installed.

     The second one was made in similar fashion but I didn't have enough hose clamps to install it. I think they will look nice for along time and still have enough hose to be flexible to move if the valve cover needs to come off.