Morris Minor Owners Club

This ebay listing keeps cropping up - can the same brake cylinder really fit both W1500 and A40 brakes ? I thought the later 1098 A40 had the same front brakes as the Minor .
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/A40-FARINA-WOLSEL ... 286.c0.m14

The Wolseley 1500 and 1098 Minor use the same size wheel cylinders. The difference is in the part of the cylinder which sticks through the hole in the backplate, ie where the pipes attach. This is smaller on the Wolseley and the flexible pipes and bleed nipples are horizontal instead of pointing upwards as on the Minor

mike.perry wrote:The Wolseley 1500 and 1098 Minor use the same size wheel cylinders.

Not true; the Minor cylinders are longer and have a larger bore. I can provide measurements to prove it.

Yep - as Alex says - longer and bigger bore on the Minor. But is it possible the A40 had the smaller shorter cylinders ? I doubt it - I had always assumed they were identical to Minor front brakes.

Apologies. When I fitted the Wolseley brakes I just roughly compared the outside dimensions of the cylinders. I have just stripped out a couple of old cylinders and the inside piston designs are completely different. I am surprised that the smaller cylinders are fitted to the larger brakes.
Does that mean that Wolseley brakes are more efficient when fitted with Minor cylinders?

mike.perry wrote:Does that mean that Wolesey brakes are more efficient when fitted with Minor cylinders?

Yes, the pedal pressure will be lower. I have Wolseleys with Minor cylinders on my Saloon, and it's easy to lock the wheels by accident when I first get in it after driving the Trav with its standard 8" brakes.

Yes - the brakes become lighter with Minor cylinders yet the pedal travel is not excessive. I do wonder however if this lightness means that the rear brakes don't get to do their fair share of the braking - I wonder if there are larger diameter rear cylinders of the same external design/size to even up the balance slightly ?
Having both sets available to me - I do think I prefer the original Wolseley cylinders overall - but the Minor cylinders are very much less expensive. With either set there is certainly NO need for a servo.

Aren't the Series 2 Minor rear cylinders compatible with the Minor 1000 ones but slightly larger bore?

It's a possibilty Alex - the same (or at least very similar) cylinders were used on the TR sports cars - at least the TR3 and 3A I believe - and just possible there may be a range of sizes. I'm having so many computer probs these days - I can't search for anything!

As far as I know all the 948 engined cars were originally fitted with the larger, 7/8" dia, rear cylinders and also the larger bore master cylinder, 7/8" against 13/16" for the 1098 and later vehicles.

Using the Minor front cylinders (15/16") in Wolseley front brakes with the smaller Minor rear cylinders gives an extremely unbalanced system - far too much front bias. Better to fit either the earlier, larger diameter Minor rear cylinders (straight swop) or the complete 8" Wolseley rear brakes.

Right - so that's the sizes for the rear cylinders - are the larger 7/8 cylinders readily available ? Wolsley rears are very definitely the answer - but hard to find ! I've asked a few Wolseley breakers on ebay - and they all seem to say they have just thrown away the rear axle after removing the diff and shafts . Grrrrrr

I was fitting A40 brakes to my A35 and have a set in the garage so will double check but I'm reasonably sure the A40 cylinders are the same as the Minor.

Paul Humphries.

I think so too -and therefore not the same as Wolselely cylinders as this ebay site suggests. I see they have a bidder now !