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Front Brake Upgrade

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M

mxp01

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Gentlemen:

I have a 1960 BE with front drum brakes and a dual MC. All works fine but I want to upgrade to front disc brakes.

I parted out a 1968 AH Sprite and a 1972 Midget. From those I was able to salvage the following:

- 1968: 2 A-arms with king pins and swivel axles, but only one caliper.
- 1972: 2 A-arms with king pins, swivel axles, and both calipers. I cut the brake lines on both.

I also have a set of new bushings for the A arms.

I see that Victoria British sells a complete front brake kit for about $165. It includes rotors w/hardware, pads w/pins+clips, caliper repair kits, and hoses. Moss, on the other hand does not have a kit, just individual pieces.

Is the VB overkill or the right approach to start completely from scratch?

Let me know,
Mike Pennell
 
Mike, it depends on what you have that's good and what you want. If your existing rotors are ok, then the $27 each you'd pay for new ones would be better spent on improved pads or braided stainless hoses. You just need to tear down what you have and measure and inspect it to determine if it can be reused or rebuilt. More than likely your calipers can be rebuilt, but perhaps not, if so the "kit" would also be wasted. If you know your rotors are bad, the calipers can be rebuilt and are ok with stock pads and hoses then the VB kit isn't a bad deal.
My recomendation would be to replace the discs if necessary, rebuild the calipers, then get some good quality pads such as the Green Stuff pads made my EBC and some braided stainless lines. You'll have a nice firm pedal with good stoping power. Most likely the clips and pins will be salvageable from the three calipers you have so no need to buy new ones unless you just want to know that everything is nice and new.
 
Mike

VB price sounds about right. I would definately check the fulcrum pins for wear in the A frame.

When this goes you usually need new A frames, fulcrum pins and kingpins.

Pat
 
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