Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi
just wondering if anyone has fitted disc brakes to the rear of a standard back axle?

I have disc brakes fitted to front of mine but would like to improve the braking further by adding them on the rear also.

Is this possible?

my strong advice would be don't.

there isn't enough weight to be able to use too good a rear brakes on a minor.

Best brakes needed on rear in my opinion are escort back axle 8 or 9inch drum braks with a servo.

Agreed

Must be quite a Minor if disc brakes on the front are not enough! Do tell us all about it! What engine do you have fitted - to need all this braking!

I agree with superchargedfool, the rear end is far too light for disc brakes. The rear wheels may keep locking up on you!

I used to have vented discs on the rear of my Minor and it was way too much (was a kit for a Mk2 Escort). I have 280mm front discs (in 13" wheels) with 8" rear drums. The only problem is with fade of the rear drums during sprints at somewhere like Castle Combe at the end of lap 2, but that is breaking very hard from 140 mph at the end of the main straight and well over 125 at a few other places.

Rear discs not needed on the rear of a Minor for road use.

Martin

thanks for the advice. i am fitting a 1.6 zetec with bike carbs through a type 9 gear box. Probably don't need the extra braking but just thought it would be different.
thanks for the fast responses.

so bigger drum brakes is probs the best way to go?

You have a choice of brake sizes on the Escort MK11 axle, the original 8" or 9" and the wider 9" Capri units.

i was hoping to use the moggy back axle as i have purchased a 3.7 diff and uprated half shafts for the car.

Could i fit riley 1500 drums easy enough?

I would not use the Minor axle with your Zetec engine. Uprating it just moves the inherent weakness elsewhere plus the brakes are poor enough to start with. Riley drums are an upgrade on the original, but in the end an Escort axle will probably be the cheapest route let alone more desirable for your power output.

thanks alot for your help. i will try and find an escort axle, is this an easy modification to do? sorry for so many questions.

Fitting kits are available off the shelf. along with handbrake cables and propshafts.

thanks again

Bargain Escort Axle......

http://www.morrisminoroc.co.uk/index.ph ... ic&t=25636

But yes - Wolseley or Riley 8" rear drums can be fitted to the standard axle - and work well - if you can find any! Would seem the Ford axle is the way to go though.

Well I'm planning to fit them to my car because they are self adjusting and just better brakes, However to make sure they are properly matched I am using callipers and master cylinder form the same car (Nissan Pulsar Ni6) Because it seems to me that the "problems"of rear discs on Morris Minors here are more likely to be about systems not configured properly rather than a problem with having all disc brakes on one of these cars.

However to make sure they are properly matched I am using callipers and master cylinder form the same car (Nissan Pulsar Ni6) Because it seems to me that the "problems"of rear discs on Morris Minors here are more likely to be about systems not configured properly rather than a problem with having all disc brakes on one of these cars.

Unfortunately I think you've missed the point. Your Nissan brakes are only matched because they were engineered to match on that particular Nissan. On a Minor with completely different suspension, weight distribution, axle weight etc... you will just lock up the rear on hard braking and (as did others who advised) that to get them to work you have to split out the rear circuit and run at lower rear brake pressure if you want rear disks.
If the Nissan master has differential pressure between front and rear, the pressure difference is likely to be non adjustable, so may end up needing to be changed to either a twin m/c set up with bias bar or a non-differential set up and a splitter/adjuster.

I've got disc brakes front and back on my Morris and never had any problems of locking up the back end, the brakes consist of ford fiesta XR2 solid drilled and grooved with mk3 calipers. The rear are fiesta discs with granada Scorpio calipers so I can have a hand brake. I've also used the mk3 fiesta sevo and master cylinder grafted to marina pedal box, the system is also a duel circuit with reducers going to the rear. Oh the back axle is ford mk2 cortina and the engine is ford focus ST170 with gsxr 750 carbs!!

Stevie

Ray
One of the reasons I want to run the discs is so that I can have the cross linked braking system that the Nissan has, namely the front right brake is mated with the rear left and Visa versa for the other wheels. This gives a far better emergency, partial brake fail redundancy than than either the usual Morris single circuit system or even the more common dual circuit system that that has the front and back separated. For the cost of running an extra hydraulic line to the back of the car having the best possible system is a no brainer.
Further I am pretty sure that given the fact that the Nissan is a FWD that its weight distribution is not that much different to a Morris insofar as both cars have their greatest mass ahead of the front axle line. To improve the weight distribution of my car I am fitting an all alloy Suzuki Swift lump which will weigh in at something less than half of the weight of a A serries engine.
Finally I hate having to adjust things like Brakes and with drums you have to do this constantly to keep them working well Disc's only require you to check for pad wear (and repalce as necessary) I know that these cars are easy to work on but do any of us want to be obliged to work on them when we could be getting more pleasure out of driving them?

Morris fixer

You could try it and see if the balance is right and if the rear locks up maybe fit brake proportioning valve(s) to adjust the pressure to the rears. The cheap way to do this used to be to get a brake bias valve from a Mini from the breakers though I wouldn't recommend unknown parts in the brake circuit

Not sure if such valves would be suitable for split circuit as you described.
Eg
http://www.revolutionracegear.com.au/in ... imary&CDO=