Morris Minor Owners Club

After being sat in a stable for 6 years the front brakes on ‘Betty’ were well and truly seized solid so over the last few evenings I have been renewing the brake cylinders and shoes. Last night I reassembled one side with all new parts but even with the adjusters on the lowest setting and no fluid in the system the hub will now not turn freely as the new shoes are binding on the original hub. Do new shoes generally need ‘adjustment’ to the metal backing plate to give them enough clearance when new or do I need to look deeper??

Chamfer the leading edge of the brake shoes with a file and when fitting them make sure that the return springs are correctly assembled. Slacken everything off and fit the drum, tapping the shoes with a hammer to centralise them. When you fill the system and push the brake pedal a few times it should bed everything in.
Check for a wear line around the inside of the drum

As Mike says - once centralised (bang the drum with a lump of wood as you turn it) they should be completely free. Are you sure the drum is completely 'on' the hub - again - bang it in with the wood and nip up the screws. BUT - don't leave the screws done up tight - slacken them back slightly when you are finished before fitting the wheel.

Thanks for the tips guys. I must admit I was hoping that it was just a case of everything sorting itself out alignment wise once it was all back together again. Will finish the other side tonight, as long as I can get all the fixings undone as this side looks a little more rusty than the other, and bleed the system through. Fingers crossed as I have booked her in for an MOT on Saturday so the pressure is on!

Tighten the drum on using a pair of wheel nuts on diagonal studs to pull the drum on square. Do no use the two set screws, they are retaining screws not tightening screws, You will just chew up the screw heads.

Normally, pushing the pedal will centralise the shoes but you can't do this until you have fluid in the system. Let us know how you get on.

They are not 'retaining screws' - the wheel does that! The screws are only there for setting up before the wheel goes on. They never need to be so tight there is the slightest risk of damaging the heads!

Most of the screws I have seen have had chewed heads because people have used them to pull the drum on. As I said, use the wheel nuts then the screws to hold the drum in position

No harm using the nuts of course (put them on backwards) - but mostly the screw heads get chewed up trying to UNDO them - hence my advice to leave them slack before fitting the wheel!

Betty had her MOT booked for 11:30 on Saturday so on Friday evening I had another 'go' at the brakes. Drivers side fitted perfectly but the passenger side was still binding. Swapped the drums over and it was a little better but not much. In the end I got it as free as I could and then took her for a spin up and down the road, after a few 'laps' they eased off which was a relief. Good news was that the brakes passed, the not so good news was that I missed a bit of rot on the inner chassis leg near the engine and one of the tyres failed as it was perished on the inner wall (which I kind of knew but hoped that he would miss it so that I had time to source a second hand replacement....typical!)

On the whole though a good result, after 5 years of sitting in a barn and a few evenings work to replace the seized brakes and some welding on the front sills she is now not in bad shape and will be back on the road again at the end of this week!

The hard work starts now though as I need to scrape, treat and then reseal the underside before winter sets in!

Not too bad a result on the MOT .....and all within your capabilities to fix ,without too much hassle.

Practice the " silly grin ...smile / who's the Daddy... look " for the re-test later this week.Got my fingers
crossed for you.

Good luck.
Bob

Well done - good luck with the re-test.