Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi everyone,

I have just replaced the front brake shoes, cylinders and drums on my 61 Minor and its now worse than before I started !
I removed the drums and found that the new shoes are only gripping on the outer edges when braking and this is making the whole front end vibrate, especially to the nearside.
Thinking that I must have been given a bad set I then bought replacement shoes and the same thing is happening. When placing the shoes inside the drums they appear to fit snuggly but after fitting them they shudder violently under light braking.
Obviously I must have done something wrong but for the life of me I can't see what. Any advice would be most welcome.
Thanks Neil.

Calipers? Drum brakes?

oops, changed to cylinders, thanks Mike.

Can't imagine - we need pictures! Are you fitting the silly bee-hive springs? Return springs fitted correctly on the backplate (ie inside) side of the shoes??

I'm curious how you know that only the outer edge is making contact? Is it because the edges seem to be wearing down but not the middle of the shoe? From memory they sometimes do this until worn in a bit. Was the car shuddering with the old shoes?

Hi David, This seems to be the case. Apparently according to Charles Ware workshop they quite often have to file down the outer edges of the shoes to stop the juddering so I'm going to try this.

That's never been my experience.......I would treat that advice with considerable scepticism....... It is sometimes a good idea to file the leading edge of each shoe to avoid any 'snatching'. I suggest you try that - then take the car out for a good drive and USE the brakes, hard and often - to give them a good 'running in'.

they probably MEANT the leading edges,but I once had a shoe wear out on the outer edge,caused by it slipping off the cylinder.The little retainer that the shoe sits in on the cylinder had broked the tiny spot welds and was sliding sideways letting the shoe tilt,cured it by fitting a retaining spring which like many I had left off. By the way didn;'t use the bee hive(To fiddly) just drilled a hole through the back plate in line with the hole in the shoe,and fitted the other type with the pin, spring and retaining collar

The beehive spring is used only on rear brakes.

Thanks everyone, I should have said leading edges which I'll do this weekend and will report back with the results.