Vintage Minor Register

I've been troubling Ian over the last week or so as I've tried to deal with oil finding its way into the rear on side (left) brake drum....with predictable and dramatic results. After trawling the Forum I've settled on new axle seals from Sports and Vintage and have a note from them that suggests th...

I've ordered new 44.25" cables from Ian Harris and will let you know how it goes.

Ian, Its been six months now since I last bothered the forum about the front brake cables on my SV. During that time I have built myself a new garage for the Minor and am now planning a concerted effort to resolve the problems raised last year and to get the front brakes working. When we last spoke ...

Thanks Ian.
Can you let me have the diameter of the early pulleys? I note that Ian Harris seems to offers only one size for all SV's 1931-34 although a bracket change at SV 13542 is acknowledged in Morris Part 50395/6

I'll check this and the off side back plate nuts this afternoon. It doesn't seem to have been a problem.. or not one that I've noticed.

Ian, Fascinating stuff. Tomorrow or Wednesday morning I will measure more accurately the distance from the clevis at the brake shoe lever to the back of the pin at the cross-shaft lever and make some judgement about the suitability of the 44.25" cables. The extra 1.75" does not seem much. ...

Ian, Here is a picture of the cross-shaft (why am I calling it a countershaft?) bolted to the rear of the chassis cross member. I'm sorry about the non Enots nipple. I assume that the shaft is correctly located as the bar/cable from the foot and hand brake fit to the levers as do the rear brake cabl...

Ian, The new cables from Ian Harris have arrived and I've been down this afternoon to try them on the car. They measure just 42 inches but even allowing for the missing half inch they would still be way too short. I should have anticipated this from my measurement with the orange string on November ...

I thought I'd just add this to a very useful post on rear wheel bearings....

Thanks John. I'm sure the fitting and adjustment will be straight forward once the new cables from Ian Harris arrive and I stop fussing.

Thank goodness for Ian G. and the forum.

Ian, Just so, and just where the brackets are on SV8159. Thank you. The pulley position might well have been the problem. My doubt was reinforced in large part from my reading of the 1931 SV Minor Lubrication chart (below) which seems to show the chassis pulley well back from the cross member and th...

Ian, Thank you for the drawing. I've been reading a forum post on this subject from early December 2010 (JF 4238 Minor Saloon). You comment on December 5 in that series that "..it certainly looks like the chassis bracket on the SV car is mounted further forward than on the OHC car" . You d...

Ian, This afternoon I remembered that on October 31 you asked "Could it be that the chassis pulley brackets are wrongly positioned on the chassis....?" I replied was that I didn't think that this was the problem. I have now noticed that the early SV lubrication chart clearly shows the fron...

I've contacted Ian Harris and he has given me useful advice about cable diameters...3mm or 4mm from his supplier. My cables measure 3.8mm but are of a composition that doesn't allow them to turn around the pulleys without bowing out and hence shortening the available length. My cable length measurem...

Thanks Ian,

I certainly don't want Bowden type cables although I'm sure they would work more consistently and with less roadside fettling required.
I will contact Ian Harris next week and in the meantime push ahead with my string theory* of brake cable fitting.

* for the scientifically minded