Drums

[M_and_P]

Improving Drum Brakes on the Healey Project. We are building a project for our site TheGentlemanRacer.com and the point is to keep the costs down as much as possible, so the next generation knows they can afford a classic. So far we have scored a lot of great parts and kept our total cost under $1,000 but the car is a 62 with Drums and we have been thinking about trying to track down some discs, but with cost as a factor we were talking about just rebuilding the drums and keeping them for now to get the project on the road and upgrading later. It looks like the only way to really swap it all out is to replace the entire lower control arm... and so far we have yet to find a donor in the local junk yard, plus our junkyard has just raised prices so we would be looking at spending $300 to get the complete assemblies. Is there an aftermarket drum to disc conversion that uses the drum hubs?

 

[Jim_Gruber]

90% of the braking force in these cars is done with the front brakes. If you have any thoughts of putting this car on the track, upgrade to disk brakes. You'll be able to find from someone on this list. Will need steering Arms as well from the later car. Major suspension kit to replace bushings & Fulcrum pins. Inspect underside of A-arms carefully for cracks. Used Roll bars are available which will help. Rubber Bushings if car is for street use. Neoprene will provide a very rough street ride.

 

[aeronca65t]

Basically, the cheapest way to go is to pull the front swivel axles (plus all the parts attached to them such as the rotors and calipers) from any '64 to '79 Spridget.

They're all the same and they'll slide right onto the kingpins on your car.

You should probably convert to dual master cylinder at the same time.

You may have to re-use your old steering arms (the part the tie-rod end goes into) depending on what year you pull the axles from, but that's easy.

For reference, the "swivel axle" is #45 in the picture below:

 

[Gerard]

They're all the same and they'll slide right onto the kingpins on your car.

Kingpins between drum and disk brake are not the same! If I remember correctly, the shouldered height of the drum brake king pin is taller and will leave too much play between the trunnion and the swivel axle. Use the kingpins from your donor disc brake car.