• Hi Guest!
    If you appreciate British Car Forum and our 25 years of supporting British car enthusiasts with technical and anicdotal information, collected from our thousands of great members, please support us with a low-cost subscription. You can become a supporting member for less than the dues of most car clubs.
    There are some perks with a member upgrade!
    **Upgrade Now**
    (PS: Subscribers don't see this gawd-aweful banner
Tips
Tips

Drum to disc conversion

Share this page

bill_young

bill_young

Jedi Warrior
Offline
One of our local big Healey owners (100-6) wants to convert his car from drum front brakes to discs. He has a car with disc wheels, not wires. From what I can tell from the catalogs it appears the hubs are the same for both disc brakes and drums, but I'm not sure. Anyone know what is involved and where he could get parts or a kit? Thanks.
 
Bolt-on wheel hubs are not "handed" so there is only one (1) part number for use on both sides.

Twenty-some years ago when I swapped from drum brakes to discs, and wanted bolt-on disc wheels instead of spline-drive wires, I could not find any suitable used hubs.

Eventually, one (1) NOS BJ8 disc wheel hub was found and it was used to gather all the dimensions, except for the outer wheel bearing (larger on the earlier cars).

To make a long story short; couldn't find any hubs, so I had some made!

From this:

scp-101a.jpg


To this:

finished_hubs.JPG
 
Bill -

The hubs aren't the same. You need to get disc wheel/disk brake hubs. There were two different types - one for mk1s and mk2s (much more common), then there are also hubs for BJ8 disc wheels which are very rare. I sold a pair of these BJ8s hubs two years ago for $100 to someone... shoulda kept them, I didn't know what I had!! :crazyeyes:

Alan
 
Bill,

I agree with Alan, you need to find disc wheel/disc brake hubs, stub axles, caliper mountng brackets, calipers, and discs from and early 3000. The only thing you can't get new is the hubs. Danis Welch sells an uprated stub axle made with bigger radiuses so is much stronger (they note in thier cataloge that crack testing shows many of the old ones have cracks). The also sell a 'replacement' caliper that is from some euro-spec car that bolts onto the early caliper mounts and uses BJ8 pads (also requires DW flexible hoses to go from metric to SAE). One advantage of the relacement calipers is the BJ8 pads - lots more choice out there in pad material, plus bigger pistons and bigger pad area = more stopping power.

I've used the 'replacement' calipers for over 10 years now and they are great.
I switched to DW uprated stub axles 3 years ago when one of my stock ones broke at a race - not a fun experience.

The other alternative is to go with all BJ8 stuf but as Alan said the BJ8 disc wheel hubs are 'hens teeth' to find.

As John said, Denis Welch is a good shop with lots of experience and know-how and are very nice to work with (a bit pricey, but...)

Good luck,
Dave Phillips
 
Hey Dave,

Maybe your stub axle wouldn't have broke if you didn't take corners on 3 wheels. Ha

Dougie
 
Guys, thanks for the information. I have passed it along. Randy, do you still have the dimension information for your hubs, Bob might consider going the way you did and have some made but we don't have an original to measure.
 
bill_young said:
Guys, thanks for the information. I have passed it along. Randy, do you still have the dimension information for your hubs, Bob might consider going the way you did and have some made but we don't have an original to measure.
Click to expand...
Yes, just have him contact me when he's ready: erandyforbes@aol.com

hub_dwg_d1.JPG
 
randy, im going to look at a n.o.s. front disk conv. kit this afternoon, and purchase it, ive never seen such kit so im not sure what all it contains but ill list the items here for anyone interested and perhaps some picts, also will put info in the "classified" section, along with other bn1/2 doors trunk lid, hood etc, and other stuff. p.s. i have a 9:30 appointment with our "shocking" friend as well. :savewave:
 
anthony7777 said:
randy, im going to look at a n.o.s. front disk conv. kit this afternoon, and purchase it, ive never seen such kit so im not sure what all it contains but ill list the items here for anyone interested and perhaps some picts, also will put info in the "classified" section, along with other bn1/2 doors trunk lid, hood etc, and other stuff. p.s. i have a 9:30 appointment with our "shocking" friend as well. :savewave:
Click to expand...
XLNT!! Please do post pictures of the kit's content, as that will benefit a lot of us.

Keep me posted on the "shocker" :wink:
 
Back
Top