Morris Minor Owners Club

doesn't the spridget kit involve a special J shaped bracket? happy to be corrected, so not sure that it is a simple bolt on job.

What is the 'j' shaped bracket used for? Callipers, perhaps?

The key words above are that the DISCS pretty much bolt on....... any swop to discs will involve some kind of bracketry for the calipers - and the master cylinder seal removal - and very probably a servo fitting, with consequent repiping to the rear brakes and possibly a remote fluid reservoir........ Oh dear - it's not cheap - and it's SO much easier to get excellent brakes with much less expense and no more than 2 hours work...........

Yes, what you say is true BMC. However, I have never heard about this info and there is no mention of it in the Morris Minor modifictaion booklet.
I fitted Marina discs/axle and servo a long time ago. The Marina conversion requires a relatively expensive bearing kit and changes to the wheel stud PCD (if you want to keep the same wheels) or go with odd wheels front and rear hence, opting to fit the marina axle as well. Not to mention the cost of wheels and tyres.

But a Spridget hub may actually be cheaper than the Marina conversion. Wheel stud PCD is the same as the Minor. This already is a popular mod. for A30/A35 owners.

I'm sure it is not just a straight swop, nothing ever is in modifying i.e cost of new discs,pads, bearings,hoses etc, But I am surprised I've not come across this quite important/interesting bit of information before.

I had Spridget discs fitted to my supercharged convertible, they were very good and as I recall they were easy to fit. The j bracket is for the caliper. On that car I had a servo assisted dual circuit system from an Ital.
So they are fine for a Minor, mine was in the realms of 90bhp and always felt very safe.
Nay sayers who don't like discs will no doubt preach otherwise.

daveyl wrote: The Marina conversion requires a relatively expensive bearing kit

esm currently sell the conversion bearings for 18.95
std minor ones are 14.75

so yes 25% more but not really expensive

And after that you can just use standard marina bearings which should be slightly cheaper.

i do not think they are std marina ones, either the inner or the outer race is not the correct size ( I think it is the inner but will not swear to it) for the minor stub axle, hence you either modify the stub axle ( JLH method ) or fit the adaptors which allow you to fit a different inner bearing

charlie_morris_minor wrote:i do not think they are std marina ones, either the inner or the outer race is not the correct size ( I think it is the inner but will not swear to it) for the minor stub axle, hence you either modify the stub axle ( JLH method ) or fit the adaptors which allow you to fit a different inner bearing

The bearing kits from esm come with the adapter sleeve, so once you have bought this once you presumably wont need to buy it again.. I have read elsewhere that the actual bearings are standard marina, but i could be wrong.

ah understand now

Yes, the Midget caliper needs a special mounting bracket to fit to the Minor suspension upright. The most common is the 'J' bracket that uses 3 of the 4 existing backplate holes. Then for each side, you will need 3 special spacers (can use washers) to position the J bracket, 3 raised socket head Allen screws and I think the standard Minor hoses can be used. The mounting kit is still available from Mini Mania in the USA - Pt. No. DSK100A. I have drawings of the 'J' brackets for both Spridget and Metro caliper mounting.

When fitting the kit to our Minor I decided to use Metro 4-pot calipers, using a new 'J' bracket. They only have 2% more total piston area than the standard Midget calipers, but being 4-pot they spread the pad load better. I used the standard Midget discs and Mintex 1144, then 1155 pads. Once, at the Hockenheim GP circuit I experienced fade at the end of the Parabolica, braking from ~110mph, down to 25mph for the hairpin, so decided to fit vented discs. Metro discs can be adapted/machined to fit the Midget hubs, but again they are almost exactly the same diameter, as the Midget, and as I haven't moved the caliper, there is no benefit from the additional 1.5mm increased radius!!. I haven't revisited Hockenheim, but have never had them fade in equally harsh environments.

I do use a servo, as I did with the original 7” and then 8” drums, albeit the one for the discs has a higher boost ratio (2.2:1) that gives a good pedal feel, and not so far away from a ‘modern’ that it takes for ever to get used to the Minor on the limit with no ABS, DSC etc. etc.!

They may be a bit small by modern standards, but it all fits within the 13” wheels and provides exceptional braking that is as good or better than any car we meet on track days – too many experiences of cars going off whilst assuming they could easily outbrake the Minor into the next corner!! Rather sticky Yokohama A021R tyres help too!

Sounds great!

Many thanks for your post. Very informative and I 'doff' my hat to you for making such a top car.
with thanks, Dave.