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Rear Disc Brakes

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69MGC

69MGC

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Does anyone out there have any experience in converting the rear drum brakes on a B to disc? I ran into a guy a while back who did a disc conversion on his B but I've lost his address and can't get in touch with him. Seems to me that he said fitting the discs was easy, but creating a mechanical parking brake set up was the difficult part. Any info is greatly appreciated.
/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/driving.gif
 
Yeah, Tony's Saab rear disc brake conversion on a 'B is very interesting and he even had the problem of what to do about the parking/emergency brake. The fitting of the rotor and calipers was unbelievably easy in his descriptions of how he did it.
 
I have read that conversions of this kind require some adjustment to the master cylinder to ensure even braking between the front and rear wheels after the new brakes are on... Otherwise the car could swap ends the first time you jump on the brakes!

Don't know any details - perhaps somebody else could comment on this aspect of things?

Loaf
 
I wrote an article for the Austin-Healey Magazine about using the rear disk setup off of a GM on a big Healey. By using an existing rear disk setup, there was already provision for the parking brake.

As soon as I find the pictures, it will get published, but I would be happy to send you the text if it might help.

The Austin-Healey's were of course built in the same factory, and shared the parts bin, so there might be similarities.
 
[ QUOTE ]
I have read that conversions of this kind require some adjustment to the master cylinder to ensure even braking between the front and rear wheels after the new brakes are on... Otherwise the car could swap ends the first time you jump on the brakes!

Don't know any details - perhaps somebody else could comment on this aspect of things?

Loaf

[/ QUOTE ]

What your talking about is a brake proportioning valve. The ultimate here would be to have it adjustable from inside the cockpit - like a F1 car.
 
Well, the SAAB rear disc brakes are smaller than the stock MG front disc brakes. So in theory there should be less stopping power out back. However, if the rear brakes over power the front brakes then it's possible to convert the front brakes to a MG V8 front disc brakes setup (not sure where to find those parts), or go with one of those Wilwood kits (larger rotor + 4 pot calipers) that I've seen in Moss and VB, but the Wilwood kit is a bit "pricey" in my book.
 
Anybody have the specs on the custom brackets - didn't see them. I'll be checking out the local Pull-A-Part for the right SAAB.

I'm just a little confused by the "parking" brake design.
 
A manual knob style proportioning valve can be had through Summit for cheap. This will take care of any front/rear bias issues.
 
it looks like Tony used a pair of Wilwood "Mechanical Spot Calipers". One for the left and one for the right. From the description it sounds almost as if they're a semi-universal parking brake for disc brakes.
 
Thanks for all your input. I'll check out Tony's site for additional installation facts. I love this forum. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
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