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I've been pretty lucky!!

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lesingepsycho

Jedi Warrior
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Wow, so last night I went in to rebuild my rear brakes. After having completely redone the front with drilled and slotted brembos, new pads, hoses, master cyl rebuild, I decided it was a good idea to check out the rears especially since the hand brake wasn't setting properly and the adjuster wedges were rusted in place. I opened them up and at first everything SEEMED normal, but the shoes had worn in a very odd manner. Following the old-guy-from-the parts-store's advice, I started in to do one side at a time so I could use the other side as a referrence if I needed. But something didn't quite feel right about the whole situation. That's when I noticed that the shoes weren't sitting quite flush to the backing plate and that's when it occured to me that putting them back together the way they were probably wasn't a good idea if that way was wrong to begin with!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/nonono.gif That's when I reached for the Haynes... and then the Chiltons... and then the factory MG shop manual. I was in disbelief but sure enough, it turns out that the last person to do brake work on the car put the retaining springs on the OUTSIDE because it was easier instead of on the inside where they belong. The difference is hardly noticeable but this causes the shoes to cock outwards from the car at a very odd angle to the drum. Definitely not "Square" and very definitely BAD which probably accounts for why I have always had to "double-pump" the brakes to get any pressure. First pump would seat the shoes square and second pump I would have pressure. Not good!! Also, on the passanger side they had used an upper-retaining spring from a driver side. Very minor but still goes to show the mechanical prowess of the previous owner. The good news is that now I have much less rolling resistance since the brakes aren't cocked or dragging and I have functioning back breaks, and a working hand break. Fancy that!!! Goes to show it never hurts to have a second closer look and a manual or two with lots of pictures and diagrams.
 
We could probably have a field-day talking about dumb, previous owners.

The parts car I just disassembled had an ordinary MACHINE SCREW cross-threaded into a brake cylinder where the bleeder valve was supposed to go.
On the same car, one of the steering rack bolts had been replaced by a large LAG-SCREW (for wood!).
A crack in one of the front A-arms on this car had been repaired with JB Weld.
And one of the bolt-on front fenders was welded on.
Rust holes in the body had been fixed with heavy steel plates arc-welded in place. Looked like "Mad-Max" did the body work.
The same car had an expensive set of new-ish Spax rear tube shocks and a giant rear sway bar.
No sway bar on the front at all, and the front lever shocks hadn't seen oil since Nixon was president.

Must have been *interesting* to drive.....
 
I'm at a loss at where to begin with the brakes on my '75 B. Do I rebuild or replace? I've not ever done anything more than replacing a master cylinder (diferent car), pads and bleed before. Is this something a novice can consider and if so which manual offers the best advice ... I do have Bentley.

Any free advice is appreciated.
 
Rich, Bentley will give you about all you need as far as a manual goes, but if you dont belong to a club in your area it would be the one thing I would advise. We on the forum will give you as much surport as we can, but it's not like having someone looking over your shoulder, plus they might be able to save you a few bucks by telling you what is good in your system. On the rear, I always advise a new spring kit. Wayne
 
Hey Rich,
In the case of my Midget, it was not much more expensive to just buy new brake cylinders as opposed to rebuild kits so that's what I did, but I have rebuilt them before and it is just as easy. I swear by Haynes manuals and don't particularly care much for the Chiltons manuals though I have both for my car. I also have a third as I mentioned in my post and it is a BMC workshop manual. Never used a Bentley manual so I can't really express an opinion there but I think it is good to have two or three for good measure. Last night I looked between all three of them to get a really clear picture of just what was going on in there. Otherwise, brakes are relatively straight forward even if the execution is difficult. By that I mean, it was clear to see where the shoes fit and where the springs went and how they went back on, but actually DOING it was kinda tricky. With the use of some good problem solving skills and a little patience, I found a way to get everything back to the way it should be. Trrdstr2000 is right though, having somebody to help out if you get in a pickle can't hurt.
 
[ QUOTE ]
We could probably have a field-day talking about dumb, previous owners.

[/ QUOTE ]

Oh, believe me, I could!! I've got a whole bucket full of stupid things the PO's PO did. Spraying the firewall with undercoating is definitly one of them, considering I've gotta get it all off.
 
You got Brembos on your front now? I have a B, so a little bigger than a Midget, and I'm trying to come up with ideas for performance brake kits. I'd like to consider Brembo, or AP Racing, but I kinda thought there wouldn't be much out there for us.
What kind of calipers are you using? 2 piston? 4 piston? did you have any trouble fitting these into your wheels?
 
Yeah, I got the Brembos off of eBay at a very reasonable price. They are the stock size but cross-drilled AND slotted for wire wheels and I've never seen another pair like them. I've seen lots of them EITHER drilled OR slotted, but not usually both. Luckily I was lowering my car today and so i could take a pic of the rotors for you. I've posted the pic at the bottom of my web page. Click to enlarge and you can really see the cross-drilled and slots. https://www.cardomain.com/memberpage/762889 While you're there you can rate the car /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif Besides some performance pads I really haven't done much else to upgrade the braking system. Still using the stock calipers. I flushed the system, rebuilt the master cyl. replaced the flex hoses, installed the rotors and put new pads while I was replacing my bearings so it was an all at once kind of thing. Then I drove it for awhile and it worked well. The upgraded rotors really grab, but like I said, I had no idea what a mess the rear brakes were. Now with new wheel cyls. and shoes the car really runs and stops hard. I would just keep my eyes peeled for the MGB rotors. On ebay you can set up a search to conduct itself and then email you automatically whenever it finds a match. That's how I just got my Momo steering wheel adapter. Do a search for "MGB ROTORS" or if you want more specific "MGB BREMBO and search titles and descriptions. I just did it and there is not much on there right now but to the right you will see "Add to Favorites". Then you just set up how long you want to keep the search going, sit back and wait.
 
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