Few years ago I removed the brake cylinders from a scrap Morris Minor and found they had brass sleeves. Recently I grit blasted the cylinders with glass beads and found the condition of the cylinder bores to be perfect, free of any pitting, scoring or corrosion. I am considering using these cylinders on my car after fitting new rubber seals.
Brake cylinder re-sleeving with brass is popular in the US and here in Australia few brake specialists have perfected re-sleeving in stainless steel. Does anyone have experience with brass sleeved brake cylinders?
1960 Morris Minor 1000 Convertible
1984 Ford Laser KB Ghia
1997 BMW Z3 1.9
1999 Holden Astra 1.8 CD
The information I have is that brake cylinders with brass sleeves last a lifetime. There are reports that sleeved master cylinders used for 30+ years without any failures and still good for many more years.
1960 Morris Minor 1000 Convertible
1984 Ford Laser KB Ghia
1997 BMW Z3 1.9
1999 Holden Astra 1.8 CD
The quote I received last week for sleeving with stainless steel grade 304 was $73 for Master cylinder, $30 each for front wheel cylinder and $47 each for rear wheel cylinder (more expensive due to the need to machine a slot for the handbrake lever). All prices in Australian dollars and may be more than the prices of new cylinders available in the UK but it will be worthwhile on the long run.
1960 Morris Minor 1000 Convertible
1984 Ford Laser KB Ghia
1997 BMW Z3 1.9
1999 Holden Astra 1.8 CD
I agree that brass is a better material for re-sleeving compared to stainless steel. The reports on the internet states that it is prabably because brass (or bronze) is used as a bearing material where as stainless steel is not. In Australia, brass sleeved brake cylinders have been in use for a very long time and they are well proven.
1960 Morris Minor 1000 Convertible
1984 Ford Laser KB Ghia
1997 BMW Z3 1.9
1999 Holden Astra 1.8 CD
Brass is better for the seal life.
It is very difficult to get the honed finish with stainless, that is possible with brass.
Stainless is viewed as a superior metal sometimes, but brass is better in instances such as this i am sure.
I have Wolseley 9" brakes on my traveller and the cylinders are very difficult to find. Mine weren't too bad at all really but as Monty is my daily transport I wanted long term reliability so I sleeved the wheel cylinders myself with stainless I did find a company down South somewhere that do it but they wanted around £80 per wheel cylinder!
This is the procedure followed by brake specialists here in brief. Stainless steel sleeves in a range of sizes are available here (imported from Sandvik, Sweden) and the cylinder bore is machined to give a press fit for the sleeve. A Loctite compound is used to secure the sleeve to the cylinder bore and it is kept in an oven for few hours to dry. Then they machine the sleeve to the bore size recommended by Lockheed. A number of holes are then drilled through the sleeve before polishing the sleeve to give a honed finish.
1960 Morris Minor 1000 Convertible
1984 Ford Laser KB Ghia
1997 BMW Z3 1.9
1999 Holden Astra 1.8 CD
That's more or less exactly how I did it! I got some seamless stainless steel tube not far off the right size (it was medical grade so will be the only shiny bits left in a few thousand years), bored out the cylinders to give a press fit for the tube, made a little hole /groove on the bottom of each tube to line up with the drilling in the cylinders for the fluid and pressed them in using a Loctite compound to secure. After that had cured I polished and honed the bores to the right size. Very pleased with my little self I was!
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Last edited by JamesSmith2013 on Sun Sep 22, 2013 10:15 am, edited 1 time in total.
In my view brakes are one of the weak systems on a Morris Minor and it is important to restore it correctly to achieve best performance. Getting the hydraulics right is part of the story, it is also necessary to get the brake shoe lining thickness matched to the drum diameter. The brake specialists here machine the drums and fit thicker linings to get the right adjustment. Has anyone overhauled the brakes by fitting thicker linings?
1960 Morris Minor 1000 Convertible
1984 Ford Laser KB Ghia
1997 BMW Z3 1.9
1999 Holden Astra 1.8 CD
it may well be spam, but there are no links or any other indication that it is (other than the poor language)... which may be because its a non native speaker posting... I am watching for any posts with links etc in ;)