Wolseley 1500 9" Brake Drums Availability

[svenedin]

I spoke to my insurance company, Adrian Flux, today to ask if there would be any difference in premium if I fitted the Wolseley front rear brakes. No difference in premium, I just have to let them know.

Stephen

[svenedin]

Front backplates are painted and ready to fit. I will assemble the parts on the backplates on the bench and check everything before I start to remove the existing 8" brakes from the car. I need to bend the cylinder bridge pipes to suit, fit the cylinders to backplate etc. I will also offer up the backplates, complete with shoes up to the drums before fitting. I don't want to find some other hidden trap that I am unaware of when the parts are on the car!

I have new Wolseley 1500 front cylinders made in England by Powertrack Brakes Ltd. Also new Automec Kunifer bridge pipes and fittings, new shoes, new flexible hoses, cleaned up adjusters and springs.

To bleed the brakes after the work I am waiting on an 8.75mm drill bit and 1/8" BSP tap so that I can fit the Gunson Eezibleed adapter into a non-vented master cylinder cap.

I hope the hubs come off without bearing trouble but they have been off before without much difficulty.

I am only going to do the fronts first and then test drive the car for some time to ensure I am happy. I may fit the Wolseley 1500 rear brakes in due course. I am expecting the engine back later this week.

Stephen

[svenedin]

I've put the front brakes together as assemblies to test everything. I'm not sure my bridge pipe bending is very elegant but I don't think they'll foul anything and the old pipes were more haphazardly bent! I have removed the formed bridge pipes and refitted them to check there is no strain on the connectors. They should go naturally into their sockets or otherwise they'll be horrible to refit when a cylinder needs changing in future.

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[svenedin]

Standard Minor 8" front brakes

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8" and Wolseley 9" brakes next to each other. They look enormous!

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[mowogg]

The brake pipes looks a little long, but I am sure it will be fine

The original route is they bend back into the recess on the back plate.

[mowogg]

Sorry I submitted twice. They look like mintex shoes? Where were you able to get these from?

[svenedin]

The brake pipes looks a little long, but I am sure it will be fine

The original route is they bend back into the recess on the back plate.

Yes they do seem a bit long. I bought some that had been made for the Wolseley brakes specifically and the bridge pipes are longer than the Minor 8" pipes. In fact they don't need to be so long and Minor pipes would fit and they would be tidier. They do bend back into the recess in the back plate (you can't see from the head on photo) but even so they are still a bit long. I could perhaps make the pipes occupy more of the recess.

Yes they are 8" Mintex shoes on there and the back 7" also have Mintex shoes. I am afraid they are no longer available and I stocked up on some of the last of the stock quite a while ago. Those 8" shoes are the last I have but they have many miles left on them, they're barely worn at all.

Stephen

[svenedin]

Mark 2 with a Minor Kunifer bridge pipe. I'm happier with that. The Wolseley pipe seems over-long.

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[mowogg]

Photo of a rusty original.

[svenedin]

Thank you. That backplate seems to have a bridge pipe somewhere in between the length of an off the shelf Minor and Wolseley pipe. If I had the tools and skill I would make the pipe up the perfect length but I have to make do with what I can buy ready-made. On the Wolseley brakes before I refurbished them, the pipes had been bent much too close to the connector. The result of this is that the connector cannot move on the pipe so when the connector is loosened it damages the pipe. That is potentially dangerous so I deliberately made sure there is some straight pipe after the connector before a bend.

Stephen


Bend too close to threaded fitting. Loosening the fitting damages the pipe. In fact, undoing the connector completely destroyed the pipe (not that I was going to reuse it!).

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[mowogg]

The pipe on your unrestored one looks too close to the bolt -it would have been a real pain to remove it if you had too.

I tend to put a smear of rubber grease on the pipe (between the union and pipe) to make any future removal easier- it is very disapoining when the pipe just turns inside the union

[svenedin]

Yes, it wasn't the bolt that was the problem but the bend. The pipe was destroyed in disconnecting it from the cylinder. This is not something you would want to happen when you go to replace a cylinder!!!

Anyway, as others before me have found, Minor bridge pipes are fine and readily available. They are not too short.

Tomorrow I will fit the backplates but I am waiting for a drill and a tap to modify an unvented master cylinder cap so that I can bleed the brakes with an Eezibleed.


Stephen

[Myrtles Man]

If I had the tools and skill I would make the pipe up the perfect length

Get yourself one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/264859621046 ... R4aPxOC0ZQ and one of these https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/394129636624 ... BM9MDJ4LRl and watch this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlMqHj0b5Zo and you'll be bending and flaring brake pipes like a pro in no time at all (I speak as one who did and now can!)

[svenedin]

Thanks for the links.

Rebuilt engine is delayed so I really have little excuse not to fit the Wolseley brakes front AND rear. I thought I would only have time for the front. Talking to people it seems the front drum upgrade is quite common and people report being very pleased with it but the rear brake upgrade is quite unusual. It may be though that my garage is too narrow to withdraw the half shafts to do the rear. I need to measure or we need to do some messing around pushing the car out of the garage and back in again in different positions for the 2 sides.

Stephen

[svenedin]

Quick question. Is there supposed to be a copper washer on the cylinder end of the flexible brake hose on the front brakes?

My old hose did have a copper washer there but the manual does not show one. The manual does show a copper washer (3/8" ID) where the rear flexible hose connects to the T-piece but not at the join to the front cylinder. I think the flexible hose end is supposed to "bottom out" in the hole in the cylinder to make a proper seal and therefore there should not be a copper washer.........



Stephen

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[svenedin]

Just to illustrate that if you make the bridge pipes on the bench as I did, it is advisable to check that the bridge pipes do not foul anything over the whole range of the steering lock to lock. These are fine (the pipe is safely behind) but it would not take much for the pipe to be fouled and damaged.

Oh and yes, this is a test fit and I WILL be cleaning all the muck off the suspension as seen in the photo!

Stephen

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[svenedin]

This explains copper washers rather well. It also explains why the washer seems too loose but then is centred perfectly when the fitting is tight. Although not stated explicitly this also shows why a new washer should be used or the old washer annealed every time the joint is broken.

Conclusion is yes I will use a copper washer.

Stephen

Video from Moss Motors:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pALz0z8bpfY

[svenedin]

Front brakes are done. Took longer than expected (of course) because one of the hub oil seals had obviously leaked and the bottom brake shoe lining was oily (this cannot normally be seen unless you have the shoes off or are looking from below. The other side oil seal was replaced as a matter of course. All 4 bearings were washed out with petrol and I wasn't entirely happy with them. They seemed rather tired and no longer running smoothly so I replaced all 4 bearings at the same time. This was probably not absolutely essential right now but with a long trip to France in May I did not want to take any chances.

I thanked my younger self for using copper grease on bolts!

I realised my torque wrench does not click if doing up left hand threads (left hand hub nut) but I just did it pretty tight and that will have to do.

This is a handy tool. Sealey oil seal puller. It will wreck the oil seal but that's not an issue if fitting a new one! It would be easy to pull out the old oil seal without disturbing the bearings at all.


Stephen

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[svenedin]

I am puzzled by old forum posts about the Wolseley 1500 rear brakes on a Minor. Mention is made of the need to use the left hand backplate on the right side of the car rotated 180 degrees and vice versa. This makes absolutely no sense to me. it would put the brake cylinder upside down and hence the bleed nipple at the bottom of the cylinder!

My reasoning is this: the backplates are marked LH and RH so it is obvious which one is which. The cylinder will only fit in the backplate the correct way due to the design of the slot in the backplate.

I may well be being daft and missing something here (like not knowing my left from my right!) but it seems to me that the Wolseley 1500 rear brake backplates go on a Minor the same side as they are marked and with the cylinder forwards of the axle and the correct way up (bleed nipple at top). In other words, it is just bolt on and bolt off (except of course that the connection to the cylinder is different to the Minor and so a different brake pipe end is needed).


Stephen


Left hand plate "LH" marked

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Cylinder slot. The cylinder can only be fitted the correct way.

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Cylinder fitted, plate in orientation as it would be on LH of car. Bleed nipple connection at top of cylinder.

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[philthehill]

The reason you have to change the brake backplates from side to side is because the handbrake actuation cables and cylinders are to the rear of the rear axle on the Wolseley 1500. The Wolseley only uses a single cable from the handbrake lever to a swingle tree (compensator) attached to the rear of the rear axle casing. From the swingle tree single separate cables run to to the wheel cylinders for handbrake actuation.
To utilise the Morris Minor handbrake cables the cylinders have to be brought to be in front of the rear axle and that can only be done by swopping the backplates from side to side and turning through whatever degrees are required.
You can leave the back plates as they were on the Wolseley 1500 but then you have to make up the appropriate linkage to suit. It is much easier to change the backplates from side to side and turn through whatever degrees are required.
Personally I have had no problems in fitting or bleeding the rear wheel cylinders.
The Owen Burton Marina to Minor tuning booklet refers to changing the Wolseley 1500 rear brake backplates from side to side.
Below is a photo of the Wolseley 1500 rear brakes as fitted to my Minor:-

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Below is a photo of the Wolseley 1500 rear brakes as fitted to my Minor. The backplates have been swopped from side to side and rotated to suit.
Note the additional spring between the cylinder lever and the outer handbrake cable retention bracket.

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You can see the bleed nipple in the above photo. If you end up having the bleed nipple in the lower of the two fluid transfer ports a good quick press down of the pedal should get rid of any air. The bleed nipples on my Minor are in the upper of the two fluid transfer ports. I am nor sure without stripping out the cylinder what type/form the bleed nipple/pipe seats are. The seat for the brake pipe and bleed nipples are different ex factory. I fitted new specialist manufactured high quality cylinder some time back. I have had no problems bleeding the Wolseley brakes with the revised configuration.