Morris Minor Owners Club

Advice wanted on the best way to get disc brakes on the front wheels. And no thank-you, I don't want marina hubs and wheels ! Will Spridget or Spitfire front hubs with discs fit the Minor stub axle ? If I can get the discs on there I will be able to match up calipers ok.

You don't need to have Marina wheels, with the conversion I've got (Grumpy's) the Marina hubs are modified to take Minor wheels. I think this kit is becoming less prevalent though as the supply of Marina parts drops.

Quite a lot of the traders that advertise in the club magazine offer the kits. There are a few different types of kit available including Marina, Midget, Ford Escort and Ford Sierra calipers. For most of these kits you can specify which type of wheels you intend to use.
One of the most common kits is the Owen Burton one, and those who want the best engineered bits tend to consider the kit From JLH.
Like most things, there are a range of prices but generally you get what you pay for ;-)

Birmingham do the midget kits if you have a word with them they can probably tell you exactly what you need, however they are supposed to be inferior to the Sierra based ones.

Depends on your budget. But if you are buying new then I would (and did) go for the JLH kit as I had problems with disc warping with the Owen Burton kit. Plus the JLH kit is FAR more sturdy looking. If you put the two kits side by side the quality difference is staggering!

Spridget front hubs fit straight on the the minor..... however there is no place for the callipers so you will have to make a bracket. Spridgets are lighter cars than minors, so if you go down that route there may not be much of an improvement!

Matt wrote:Spridgets are lighter cars than minors, so if you go down that route there may not be much of an improvement!

My Sprite's brakes feel noticeably better than my (Marina disc converted) Minor though.

well maybe it would be better... I might try spridget disk sometime (I have most of the stuff)

Well the couple of people I have come across with the midget disc set up have said the the Marina and Ford set ups were better.

Thanks Matt - and others. So is that a definite then - Spridget front hubs go straight on the Minor stub axle ? I am intending to do this conversion for very little cost (miserable Scotsman) and since I have recently pioneered the 1 pot Fiesta Mk I calipers conversion on my Mini (great brakes and still allows 10" wheels over big discs) , I think I will easily manage a bracket for the caliper on the Minor upright.
Anyone got Spridget front hubs with discs for sale ??

Well I have some really really bad ones, but you should be able to buy the hubs really cheaply from a spridget place, a new set of disks would be between £10 and £15 (so get new ones) and I am sure you could get some callipers that would work from the scrappy.... Fiesta ones might work (maybe)

.... Fiesta ones might work (maybe)

I do love the term maybe when talking about Brakes..................................................

well you would have to see if the fiesta calipers fitted over the disk and had enough travel (I am fairly sure they do... before moving.....

Oh the Fiesta calipers work brilliantly on the Mini conversion !! But they are designed to work on a 7.9" disc - what size are Spridget discs ? I suspect maybe just 7" ?
Matt - do you have disc type hubs you could sell - of course I will be buying new discs, once I see if the conversion is practical - so a pair of hubs with knackered discs would suit me fine just now.

For everyone's information I've just booked Hebe in for her to be looked at at JLH for jonathon to see exactly what condition she's for fitting their kit to

I'll let you know how she gets on if she has the discs fitted!

well i am quite happy with my marina disc brake and remote servo set up on my van
i will be putting the jlh disc brake conversion on my pick up though

I do have some spare hubs, but they are knackered..... also I would like to have a play with spridget disks sometime (without taking them off my sprites)

Read with interest: discs are next project. Familiar with Owen Burton and others but unfamiliar with JLH; who are they? Does someone have contact details, please?

Andrew/Bigginger - ref JLH: thank you