Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi guys. Naturally, the rear brakes present some trouble. Totally corroded, I had to wrestle off the brake pipes from the banjo joint. This of course means I will have to make 2 new brake lines fast.
I need to go to the local brake shop tomorrow, hoping he has Brit stuff...

a) What is the correct dimension of the brake line itself and
b) the screw-in thingy, and
c) what thread/pitch is it?

- I will need a few, and a few spares.

d) It´s been a while since I coned my own brake lines. I vaguely remember how to. Can anyone fill me in? I have the cutter, the line spanner/fixture, the cone press and the black thingys that go into the tube.

Sequence correct? Do I insert the black thing into the brake line, span it with maybe 2mm of material above the spanner and press down, and then take it out, and finish it off by making a nice cone into the newly pressed lump?? This is how I remember it...

Oh, and yes - the brake switch is replaced, and it works

Cheers /Richard

Errr - there is NO 'black thingy' involved!! The pipe end is simply swaged over to give either a concave or convex surface depending on what mating part it is screwing into. Note the rear brake parts (cylinders and T piece) use an unusual thread - 3/8" BSF - the rest of the car (master cyl/front brakes etc are all the more normal 3/8" UNF.

Hmm...the black thingy is inserted into the pipe, and then pressed down to make the copper form the back-end of the cone, where it meets the screw-in thing - and then removed so you can press the forward cone (that meets with the cylinder) with just the cone tool, IIRC. Now, I may be wrong here, so please bear with me. After all, it´s Brit technology, and I´m not used to it.

Now the thread info was really useful. Thanks, it may save the brake guy an hour looking through his stuff.

But..why on earth would the rear end brakes use different threads?

Ah, well...I will bring the banjos for them to see, so I guess their worst case reply will be " - we aint got any, you picked the wrong time to come" (Bob Dylan, Highlands)

Tnx - and good night /Richard, "mad bloke in Sweden" (Orkney)

Ahh - right - your 'black thingy' is the shaped tool that swages over the pipe - ok - yes that's how it works - there should be two - First Op to form a convex shape and then Second Op (if required) to form that into a concave shape - where that form is needed to match the inside shape of the fitting. Why did they make some different - I guess so you can join two pipes together- convex and cave (sometimes know as male and female) ends fitting into one another. Flexi pipes tend to come with convex ends - and so concave brake pipe is needed to match against it. I suppose the rear axle must have been sourced as a complete assembly - and it so happens these rear cylinders and banjos (also used on TR 2,3 etc) came with 3/8" BSP thread.
And of course - European cars now come with m10x1 brake pipe fittings -which are almost the same as 3/8" UNF - but MUST NOT be used - they will pull out!!

I was extremely lucky to find 4 fittings with a BSF thread today - and in my home town. This allowed me to make 2 new rear brake lines. What next - a lottery ticket seems to be the thing to buy? *smiles*

Front stuff removed today, BTW, reassembly tomorrow, with all new stuff.
Luckily, I scored 8 of those 3/8" UNF fittings..so I´m home free with respect to brake lines..the rubber hoses are still OK after disassembly of the front.

/Richard

Well done indeed finding these BSF fittings!! Hard to get here - never mind in Sweden.