Brake cables

[Mike Stubbings]

Hi All.
A while ago I asked where to get brake cables for my 1932 2str Minor. Some people said why change from the originol system of cables and pulleys. Unfortunately when I purchased the car most of the restoration had been carried out but the brake cables had not been fitted. Boxes of old spares came with the car which included old worn cables, a couple of pulleys and nothing else.Not even the brackets which carry the pulleys on the chassis. Rear cables were easy,all that was needed was a new pair. I thought about the front at length after comments about how good and bad they could be. I asked numerous people for the lengths required for the conversion using the cable with an outer. A number of people gave me the dimensions of both their inner and outer. I was suprised at the variations and no two were the same. I played around with cables and found that varying sizes it seemed would work. I found that the sizes sent to me by Roger Lucke to be the nearest to what I had worked out. I had them made by Speedograph Richfield Ltd of Nottingham. Their price for the rear cables was £8.00ea and the front £18.75ea. The total cost including VAT and postage was £71.03 for the 4 cables delivered to my door. I ordered them Tuesday afternoon and I recieved them Thursday morning. The threads are 1/4BSF so your old nuts can be used. I will try and load some pics of them. Regards Mike.
Info@speedographrichfield.com. If you want to talk to them 0115 926 4235 ask for TIM .
Website http://www.speedograph-richfield.com PS I believe they have been in business 60yrs.

[Ian Grace]

Mike,

Good work! I'll see if I can squeeze this info. into the next Magazine for the benefit of everyone else.

You can't beat GBP 71 to get all four brakes connected, and no messing around with peculiar pulleys and kinky kingpins!

And these work equally well for OHC or SV cars.

I have used Richfields many times in the past, as well as Speedy Cables (POC was a Mr. Fahmi Mahrouf, I seem to recall!) - both companes provided excellent service.

[chris lambert]

Here are Mike's images;

[Mike Stubbings]

Thanks Chris for putting the pics on.Hope your well.
Ian, Putting the article or info in the mag for the benefit of the others is fine. Do these others ever use the forum.I know there are people who do not like or understand the computer and like old motors they can drive you mad with frustration. When I look down the articles and comments
it seems a small number of us use it. Have you ever done a check to see how many members have actually used it. If any of you out there read this or read the forum but never leave comments, come out of the woodwork and let us hear from you all. Mike :

[Ian Grace]

Hi Mike,

Yes, thanks for the pics.

Re the Forum, I am a member of several others and the general pattern is much the same. Not everyone has a PC, and, of those who do, not everyone spends as much time on them as some of us. Thus, to try to suit everyone, the VMR has several ways of 'networking' with members - the Forum, the website (which posts news, adverts, etc.) on a regular basis, the monthly e-mailed Newsletters for those who tend to read e-mail but not surf the web, the Magazine of course, for everyone, and then the Rallies and pub meets, etc. I hope that the totality of all this offers something worthwhile to all tastes. I do have statistics on the Forum usage, I have the web counter for the website and I have read stats. for the Newsletters. There really isn't anything surprising in any of them.

In many ways, the advent of the Internet is a pity because it tends to separate the 'haves' from the 'have nots', which was not the case before. However, it is such a powerful tool for the dissemination and exchange of information that it cannot be ignored. To try to close the gap a bit, I am starting to take threads from the Forum and rework them into technical articles for the Magazine, so that everyone can benefit - and your brake cables are a good example.

Having said all that, it would be good to hear from others who have signed up for this Forum, but have not posted much. That was the purpose of the 'Our cars' section which I hope will encourage owners to show us what they have and what they are doing.

[Mike Stubbings]

Hi Ian, You are I think quite correct in you comments. Regarding your last comment about Our Cars and what cars others have, What I think is just as important is what information they hold in their heads,especially the older members. If I had to sit down and write a letter about the brake cables and get some photos printed and take it to the post box, I probably would not have bothered. As it is, with the forum it can be done in a few minutes when you pop indoors for a cup of tea and it is fresh in your mind. Where members would benefit is, if you are having a problem in the garage, you can pop indoors, put your problem on the forum and within hours get help.As I have done a few times.My thanks to all who have answered my queries.I think at the moment the forum is the few helping the few,if more people would use the forum it could be the quite a few helping the majority. Lets hope it continues to expand.Got to go now,teas finished,back to work.Mike