Morris Minor Owners Club

I nave a 1098 with the standard mods - 12G940 head, Maniflow inlet and exhaust manifolds, HIF 38 carb. With the antiroll bar, uprated dampers and servoed ( new) standard brakes on Minilites it performs really well and stops pretty well too..
However ......I also have a set of newly overhauled Riley 1.5 brakes, spare cylinders and new set of shoes sitting on the shelf and I would love to fit them.
The question is: will I end up with an absurdly overbraked front biassed liability or will it all simply add to the stopping power in a helpful way?
Advice welcomed

The Riley drums are HUGE in comparison to the standard Minor

http://www.mmoc.org.uk/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=14713

Personally I would sell the Riley ones and get a set of Wolseley 1500 drums and shoes, I fitted them and they are excellent without a servo. Other advantages are that you can actually get replacement shoes and standard Minor cylinder will fit with a very small mod to the back plate, you can use the Minor adjusters and springs as well - no brainer

Both the Riley and Wolesley 1500 front brake drums are 9" diameter, but the Riley are wider, so look big! The downside of the Riley set up is the cylinders are very small (0.75" dia), so the pedal pressure is very high.

Better to get the Wolesley 1500 and fit Minor 13/16" front cylinders - lots of stopping power and reasonable pedal pressure at the same time.

I like the way a '940' head has become the 'standard' modification on a 1098 engine ! It was unheard of in Minor circles a few years ago...... I found the W brakes excellent - without a servo. But no harm in trying your R brakes since you have them. I know some use them without a servo - you can only give it a try - it's only 1 hour per side to fit them, so not a huge task to swap back if you don't like the result.

Which hoses are required with the Riley brakes? The cylinders were originally Girling, not the AP Lockheed of Morris/Wolesley. Is the thread fitting the same or different?

I suspect it is different Richard. So indeed something to check out before doing the swap.

The threads in the Riley hoses are different to those of a Minor at the end where the hoses attaches to the body - When I fitted the Riley front brakes to my Minor all I had to do was change those unions from male to female. It is quite an easy job as both metal pipes can be removed without much difficulty to rework the ends and even more so if you have the tool to do the job without having to totally remove the pipe.
If I remember correctly the Riley ones are 3/8" UNF threads and so require the Minor brake pipe ends to be changed from a male union to a 3/8" UNF female union end fitting and a double flange (concave) is required on the pipe end to suit the Riley pipe union.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/RILEY-1-5-195 ... SwFL9TsttG
I ran the Minor with the Riley brakes fitted without servo and brakes were excellent.
The only problem with the Riley brakes is that the snail cam adjusters can and usually do come loose in the back plate and so end up with brakes slackening off. You can occasionally pick up a repair kit off 'e' bay.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/AUSTIN-A50-A5 ... Swe-FU6iyT
I had to replace the snail cam adjusters more than once.
Phil

But if you stick with the Minor flexi pipes (UNF)- do they fit the Riley cylinders?

The Riley 1.5 hoses in the link above clearly have UNF threads on their inner end.
The reason I changed the hoses when substituting the Riley 1.5 brakes (for the Minor 948cc 7" dia front brakes then fitted) may have been down to the length of the Minor hoses not being right.
I certainly would not have changed the hoses unnecessarily.
Phil

I had no problem using the Minor hoses with my W brakes - can't comment on R brakes though. Are the cylinders in the same relative position as the 8" brakes? If so - the 'movement' is only 0.5" - which I wouldn't expect to be a problem. Of course - new hoses may be a good idea anyway - especially if higher pressure is needed to make the brakes work effectively.

bmc
The Riley 1.5 brakes fitted to my Minor were moved on a long time ago so cannot comment on the orientation of the cylinder so I shall have to leave answering that question to someone else.
In the mean time I will see if I can find a photo of the Riley 1.5 brake cylinder orientation.
Phil