Front drums

for those with Series MM sidevalve cars produced between September 1948 and February 1953
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sii803
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Front drums

Post by sii803 »

I am doing myself up some fornt suspension and doing the brakes whilst i am there. It looks as though someone has machined out the drum to fit the latter bearing and made a botch of it. Anyway as new fornt drums are unavailable, is it possible to machine second hand ones? If so how big and whats the limit? If not, whats the limit?

Cheers,
Matt
ASL642
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Post by ASL642 »

If the early cars are 7" you can get new brake drums they are available through Bull Motif in the Uk. I know that there's the postage charge to be taken into account but the superior ones are £21.00 ish here. Hope this may be helpful, I dont have early cars myself, so if I'm wrong I'm certain that someone will be along soon to help. :D

Lou Rocke
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mike.perry
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Post by mike.perry »

I assume that you are refering to Series MM front brake drums and that somebody has tried to convert them to fit Minor 1000 swivel pins.
If you click on Technical Info then scroll down to Swivel Pin Modification then the instructions are there on how to do the job correctly
sii803
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Post by sii803 »

thanks guys, but I was more wondering if is possible to machine the drums to renew the running surface, or if there is wear limit, ie max diameter before they are no good. I think for some applications it is possible to get oversized linnings. I will be using the tech tips about using the 1000 uprights, thanks.

NB just had a wonderful run in the bay to birdwood rally and happy to report the morris performed excellently. will try to get some pics up latter.
mike.perry
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Post by mike.perry »

A little light skimming to clean the surface of the brake drums is ok. As long as you don't run out of adjustment on the snail adjusters.
A trick is to fit a washer between the top of the piston in the wheel cylinder and the piston cap to take up the extra space.
Last edited by mike.perry on Fri Oct 03, 2008 9:31 am, edited 1 time in total.
sii803
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Post by sii803 »

Thanks Mike. I've found a local bloke who has five drums, so i'll guess i'll just buy the smallest ones :wink: I'm going to buy them with the wheel bolts just to makes sure. He also has the joiners for the windscreen i have been missing :D His prices were very ageeable so I'll have to make sure I dont come home with a spare engine :wink:

Cheers, Matt
mike.perry
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Post by mike.perry »

There were two different wheel bolt threads, BSF and UNF, they changed about chassis no. SMM 131858 (RHD). Your car is SMM 33863 which should have BSF threads.
There are also two hex. sizes available on the UNF bolts, 5/8 A/F (small) and 3/8 Whit. (larger) which came in later on the Series II to cure the problem of wear in the bolt holes in the wheels.
Check what you are getting or you could end up with a collection of odd wheel bolts. It might be worth checking to see what is on the car already.
sii803
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Post by sii803 »

Made the trip to visit the bloke with the drums. Good news, I have four drums all front. One pair has finer threads with bolts that have small heads The other pair coarser threads that are the same as my car, presumably BSF. My bolts do have 3/8 whit heads.

I plan to use the ones that match the original ones on the car. The others I'm not keen to use with the small heads, but Guess i could put studs in if it came to that.

I did escape without bringing home a spare engine but did return with a gearbox, joiners for the windscreen a good horn button and a later pneumatic trafficator switch. (in need of new cup valve)

Does anybody know if the springs on the bottum of the gerstick are available?

Good weekend by all counts.

cheers,
matt
mike.perry
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Post by mike.perry »

Seems like you did a good deal there, especially if the gearbox is OK.
The conical turret springs are available from MMOC club spares, I had a batch made some years ago and passed them on to the club. Contact bryan.gostling@mmoc.org.uk
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