A Braking Question

[mike houston]

I am currently piecing back together the braking assembly and steering of my '30 saloon. It's going quite well, if slowly, but I am puzzled by the positioning of the rear brake cam levers. In reference books I have looked at the lever is shown in the downward position, and I have no problem with that. However in an upright position it appears that the cable is more direct and doesn't have to perform such an angle around the cable guide on the chassis. Is there anything inherently wrong with having the lever in an upright position? The only thing I could think of against it is that it might become more inaccesible for adjustment with the body back on, but even that seems unlikely. Any learned guidance would be welcome please.
Regards to all,
Mike.

[cammy]

Good question Mike. I would have asked it myself in about a fortnight.
It must be that time of year or is our progress pretty close.

ATB
C

[Ian Grace]

I wouldn't want to be categorical without looking under a car, but maybe it is that, if the levers were on top, then the cable would have a greater chance of popping out of the bronze guide on the rear spring front hanger?

Or maybe Morris didn't want the brakes to be too fierce!

[Ronald]

MT's levers are in the upright position, however, it was pointed out to me that they are apparently wrong, if you think about the axle twisting when you brake, the twist would actually assist the braking effort if the levers faced downwards....... i've not yet got round to changing mt's....... one day maybe ./..LOL!!

[cammy]

I have answered quite a few of my own reconstruction queries as to where bits go by taking a quick peek at the lubrication chart.
Take a look. It seems to me that they are certainly hang downers as opposed to stand uppers.

C

[DF9053]

They should point downwards, the reasons are already here, firstly the cable could come out of the guides at the front of the rear spring, particularly when under load and second axle twist will take the brakes off rather than pulling them on a little more.

Cheers
Jeremy

[Ian Grace]

Jeremy,

Your second point is right on the money. And if you consider the front brakes, the levers were on the bottom for the 180 degree cable config. and on the top for the later configs. for the same reason.

(Of course, you could put one on top on one side, and the other one underneath and see which way the car pulled under braking! )

While on the topic of levers, I always try to find a set of SV Minor levers for my OHC cars because they lean over quite a bit more than the OHC levers and so there is more movement before they go 'over the top', as it were. They should always pull towards the vertical. Some later MG levers lean over almost 45 degrees. Mike Dowley did have these in stock (and may still have), but I have never fitted a set of these to a Minor. I have also seen levers with extensions welded on them ...

I think the other nice feature of the MG brakes is that I think they did away with the swivel pins which the Minor had at the rear levers, and the cross-shaft for the front brake cables. Rule of thumb - the four brass adjuster nuts should all be at the rear end of your four cables.

But now I'm rambling!

[mike houston]

Thankyou for the above posts, as ever quick and efficient. I need no further convincing, and have started to fit the rear arms facing downward. At the front I have no no option but to put them in the upright position as I have the Bowdenex conversion, and couldn't face the problems in returning to original spec. I console myself with some of these 'minor' updates with the fact that the original owners of the time must have enthusiastically modified their cars with whatever was available. So as far as I am concerned any mods 'in period' are mainly OK . I am still agonizing over the wheels and what finish and colour to use! I am thinking that originally owners might have painted the wheels in the body colour, in my case Oxford Blue. Equally they might have gone the MG route and used silver, (which might look nice). However I guess I will eventually fall in and use the usual black. But then whether to have an stove enamel finish or powder coat etc, (and so it goes on.....!)

Regards to all,
Mike.
ps. Will get round to posting more pictures soon.

[Highlander]

Mike, Re colour of wheels. I have always liked wheels the same colour as the body. I know this is not always correct but it is your car. If you are good at computers have you tried looing at your car (blue) and colouring the wheels to match, or black, or silver and see what it might look like. I say this because my mate who painted my minor (on canvas) put the image (photo) on the computer, then got a line drawing of the minor and then put it on canvas and painted it. Just a thought. Off to Aberdeenshire tomorrow for a week visiting ageing aunts. Hope to contact the Morris Minor men in Aberdeen and Huntley. Highlander.

[mike houston]

Highlander,
Thanks for that, I might be able to give it a go if I can get my computer in gear! I hope the weather is good for you in Scotland,
Regards, Mike.