Morris Minor Owners Club

Hi can anyone tell me what is required and what to do to for a disc brake conversion from a midget to minor please,I have been told you can use the minor suspension and that its quite an easy conversion,any info will be greatfully received.
Regards Si

Easy enough - you need a special bracket to carry the calipers. Bad news is - it will be no better than the 8" front brakes and not nearly as good as 9" Wolseley brakes...... And of course - as with all disc brake conversions, you need to dismantle the master cylinder and remove the top-hat seal...... and then you may find you need a servo - and a remote reservoir..........

As stated, you just need a special calliper mounting. If you search back on here then there are a drawing or two. In the period they were offered as an upgrade, and much less hassle once fitted, no fade issues etc, aswell as debatable better braking. You will find one of the drawing is for iirc metro callipers which would probably give better braking. As said though marina conversions are much more popular, and brakes are better.

Oh blimey confused now,want to do a disc conversion when my son gets a minor,it will be his first car and dont want to worry about brake fade etc.
So if I fit a servo to the drum brakes will that give good brakes?
I know you can buy complete kits but they really are expensive and we cant afford to buy them .
If we could find a marina set up is it a reletvely straight forward job? and will I have to mess around with the master cyl?
Regards Si

My feeling is, if this is your sons first car then I can't see him getting into a brake fade situation and would suggest a complete check and possible overhaul of the original system would be a more sensible start. If the standard set up is in good order Minor bakes are not bad, but only you can make the final decision.

Fitting a servo will not improve the braking as such, as-long as the brakes are in decent condition. As a young member, I would recommend fitting discs, As I'd say he is more likely to find issues such as brake fade, as opposed to someone who will drive the car more sympathetically (no offense meant) Be on the lookout for a second hand disc brake kit (usually marina) or even post a wanted add if you dont want to/cant afford to buy new. The master cylinder will need modifying if fitting discs, but its really not a difficult job. If it were me (well I already have) then I'd suggest fitting a whole new brake system. New mc, pipes and rear cylinders. (actual drums are normally ok, and pads its obvious) just to be on the safe side. Also dont be tempted by cheap replacement pattern cylinders, go for genuine lockheed ones.

Make sure the car has at least the later 8" front drums -these in good order are perfectly satisfactory, and no servo required. The most cost effective upgrade then is a set of Wolseley 9" front drums - which bolt straight on and give fantastic braking without need for any other mods. Snag is - hard to find these days!

So would a 69 model come with the 8inch drums ?

YES!

I keep my 8'' brakes adjusted and they work Had Disc on my other morris did not seem any better

I'd stick with the servo set up, he will have learned to drive in a modern car and not be accustomed to the amount of effort needed to get the brakes to work.
Neither will anyone else who is used to more modern vehicles.

At the end of the day it's down to the skinny tyres, they will stop gripping even with the standard brakes if hard pushed.

The limitations of the handling and braking will make him a much better driver and any accidents that could possibly happen will be at much less life threatening speeds.

Exactly.....

I have ABS on my Modern Car that means I can drive faster in contry lanes when it raining

Do you honestly believe that ????

thanks chaps,will leave as standard and see how it goes .

having had a recent "experiance" involving a tow rope a recovery van the m3 and a slip road i really dont see what the problem with standard brakes are! the standard minor 1000 set up comfortably stopped the van and minor from the eye watering 65mph he was towing me at in a reasonable distance (he showed no brake lights to stop for the roundabout) they also did not fade on the folloing 5 mile run through basingstoke doing all the stopping and keeping the rope taught. yes they did smell hot at the destination and did require adjusting but i was very surprised at how well they did (want happy with the recovery company though )

Exactly - they are excellent brakes IF maintained ! He really should NOT have towed you with a rope........ they are supposed to use a rigid bar.

This is the 'J' bracket required for the Midget caliper conversion - uses standard Midget discs on Midget hubs - straight swap with any Minor/Wolesley front drum brake hub.
[frame][/frame]

This is the 'J' bracket for fitting a Metro 4-pot 'solid' disc caliper in conjunction with standard Midget discs.
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It is also possible to fit Metro vented discs. The 'J' bracket for the caliper is the same, but there is machining required to the Metro disc to fit it to the Midget hub. Straightforward if you have a lathe, but otherwise not so easy!

With any disc conversion, you need to remove the top hat 'residual pressure valve' from the master cylinder, and also fit a servo to get a more 'normal' pedal pressure in comparison to a typical 'modern'. The servo cannot 'improve' the brakes, but it avoids the 'oh ****' feeling when jumping into the Minor from a typical overservo'd modern car. When you need to brake hard is not the time to need to be wondering why the Minor brakes feel rather different!!

If you live in the Oxford area and would like to test the 'feel' of discs on a Minor, please contact me.

yes bmcecosse i know that but when he appeared (rather later than told) didnt have a coil which he said he had (told him what the fault was and the recovery lady), turned up it wouldnt fit on the recovery dolly (how anything would is beyond me as it was the rear bumper hitting the floor!! ) and he didnt have a pole there were few options.... to say thet i was less than impressed by the service offered by this large recovery company!!!!

Oh dear - still - it gave your brakes a good work-out!