Morris Minor Owners Club

Hello . I am fitting a set of disk brakes to my Minor that I bought second hand ( but unused) . The calipers are Ford ATE type . The outside pad is free to slide in the caliper and is not retained by anything , there is a spring wire clip on the outside of the caliper that does not do anything . What is this for and should the lose pad be held by it ?
Regards Phil

There is only one piston on each caliper so when you apply the brakes it pushes its brake pad on to the disc and then the assembly pivots so that the
other free pad is also pulled into engagement with the disc. The wire holds the pad in position. The 'free' pad is not able to fall out due to its proximity to the disc.

You hope ! I don't like these calipers where the pads are not retained by nice big pins.

But how does the wire clip hold the pad in position ? I doesnt seem to do anythink !!
Phil

Could you post a picture or email a pic to me and I'll post it to easy out confusion

there are two types of spring clip. I believe that you have the wire type when you should have the flat plate type. The latter is longer and fits tightly onto the caliper. Are they Sierra or Escort discs.

http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-10/ ... spring.JPG
http://img.villagephotos.com/p/2006-10/ ... pring2.JPG
I hope these are some help . Does the spring fit over the pad? It doesn't seem to have enough "spring" for that
Phil

The spring clips are fitted correctly in both images.

so what do they do then ? Phil

I imagine it locates the sliding bracket correctly onto the main caliper, no allowing too much 'end float'

bmcecosse wrote:You hope ! I don't like these calipers where the pads are not retained by nice big pins.

I thought you didn't like anything other than 9" drums!

Ah - my Mini has Ford calipers on it's nice big disc brakes ! Allows me to have good brakes - and 10" wheels.

I must apologise for my earlier post re the Escort/Sierra disc brakes. I have recently fitted these to my car and was satisfied that I knew how they worked. I didn't! I should have left it to Jonathon! I only know that they work very well. In future I will make no comments unless I am absolutely
certain that I know what I am talking about.

Dohh !

Willie - don't apologise - we all do our best to help out with whatever knowledge we have to add to the pool. You didn't say anything wrong! Ok the caliper slides rather than pivots - but the idea is the same. Single pot pushes and the reactive force clamps the two pads to the disc.

I fitted Marina disc brakes to my convertible just prior to the National Rally. The problem I had was that I had to press the brake pedal twice to get a brake after this it was ok and solid, but after being left until you needed to brake again the symptons were back. The pedal was not spongy. I had bled the system five times to no avail. I did the National and then went to France for three weeks, albeit that most of the mileage was done on a braked A Frame behind my motorhome. Still it was a bit scary if I had to brake in an emergency. On my return I spoke with a mechanic friend of mine that I had served my time with in the late fifties. He suggested that I take out each brake pad in turn, force out the piston and then slowly force the piston back in. I did all four in turn and had the master cylinder cap off whilst I did it. I then rebled the system and the problem was solved. Perhaps this might be useful to anyone who is going down this route and finds problems.

Yes - it pushes out any little trapped bubbles of air.
There's another thread around where the workings of the braked A frame (and especially the fixing of the frame to the car) are required!