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pdxpete

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To avoid any potential confusion please be advised that the front hubs from a Sprite or Midget with front disc brakes look a LOT like the front hubs from a Morris Minor 1000. But, they are NOT interchangeable. Oh, you can try to swap them out from Morris to Sprite, but there will be absolutely no joy. There will be consternation and confusion will abound, but until the penny drops …

As they say, please do not ask me how I know this.
 
Pete,

Since I've done this more times than I can count, I'm puzzled at exactly what you mean? What is the cryptic problem you have encountered?
 
Gerard,

With a lot of help from a friend I am trying to reassemble two cars that were torn down in about 2003 and had not been touched until recently. The Morris came to me with a front disc brake conversion that worked and worked well. The Bugeye originally had front disc brakes; back in the day, I secured new or reconditioned front suspension parts to make the conversion to disc brakes. Unfortunately, the Parts Palace (my garage) got supremely disorganized in the intervening years. When we tried to put what we thought were the hubs off the Morris on to the new Bugeye spindles we ended up with a clearance problem when installing the calipers. Although my buddy has a lot of experience, he has not worked on LBCs before. We looked at various manuals several times, but neither one of us could figure out what was going on. Anglo Saxon expletives were used. We determined which hubs were from the Morris by the paint overspray on them, which of the other hubs we were sure came from Baggies marked "Morris hubs" and which hubs we were sure came from Baggies marked "Sprite hubs". We put them all flat (wheel lugs pointing up) on the work bench and found out the ones of presumed Morris origin stood a bit taller that the ones of presumed Sprite origins ... they were a little longer from front to back. Right now, we are guessing this might be the cause of our fitment problem ... maybe. I'll keep you posted.
 
pdxpete said:
Gerard,

... We put them all flat (wheel lugs pointing up) on the work bench and found out the ones of presumed Morris origin stood a bit taller that the ones of presumed Sprite origins ... they were a little longer from front to back. Right now, we are guessing this might be the cause of our fitment problem ... maybe. I'll keep you posted.
Click to expand...


Pete, a couple things. It sounds like you are comparing drum brake hubs. While I have not compared, there probably are some differences there. However, Sprite disc brake hubs are a direct fit on the Morris, but you need a special "J" bracket to mount the calipers. The calipers mount frontmost on a Morris, while rearmost on a Sprite. The other thing you are probably not aware of, is that the king pins used for drum brakes are different from king pins used on the disc brake cars. You must use the disc brake king pins if converting to disc brakes on a drum brake Sprite or Midget. As I'm still not 100% clear which hubs you are comparing, this is the most I can offer at the moment. I can help more if you can clarify things further with pictures or explanations.

The other possibility is that the disc brake setup from the Morris is NOT from a Spridget. There are several other conversion that are possible, one of which being from a Morris Marina. While they will adapt well to the Morris, they will not fit a Sprite. Post pix of the hubs in question and I'll see if I can ID them for you. I've done 3 different DB conversions on MM's.

Have you seen my disc brake conversion page for Sprites?

https://gerardsgarage.com/Garage/Tech/DbrakeUg.htm

Let me know.
 
Thanks, I will check out the link, calm down, look at things again, and keep you posted. Mike is a busy full-time student and expectant father and I have serious limitations on my mobility and energy levels, so neither of us can spend much time right now with the fiddly stuff. Right now he's in the process of welding new chassis legs and front crosspieces on the Morris. I am rebuilding the front suspension with NOS, new Quinton Hazel and good used OEM parts. We hope back the suspension back on the car sometime soon. Next he will be putting new floor pans in the Morris while I put together a set of 15-leaf BE rear springs using a mound of used springs as a parts source. After that, we'll be reassembling the Bugeye. It is then that we will have to sort out the hub business.

Thanks again,
Pete
 
pdxpete said:
Thanks, I will check out the link, calm down, look at things again, and keep you posted. Mike is a busy full-time student and expectant father and I have serious limitations on my mobility and energy levels, so neither of us can spend much time right now with the fiddly stuff. Right now he's in the process of welding new chassis legs and front crosspieces on the Morris. I am rebuilding the front suspension with NOS, new Quinton Hazel and good used OEM parts. We hope back the suspension back on the car sometime soon. Next he will be putting new floor pans in the Morris while I put together a set of 15-leaf BE rear springs using a mound of used springs as a parts source. After that, we'll be reassembling the Bugeye. It is then that we will have to sort out the hub business.

Thanks again,
Pete
Click to expand...

No problem Pete. I have extensive familiarity with both the Morris and the Bugeye and I've done nut and bolt restorations of both (more than once), so don't hesitate to ask me. Feel free to email me direct if you wish also.
 
Pete, glad to see you're back in the garage and working on projects. It's been a long hard road for you, I know. ..
 
Another thing that may be in play here is that you may be mixing wire-wheel disks and plate-wheel disks and having problems.
The brake disks ARE different!
Pete- glad to see that you are back "on your feet"!
BillM
 
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