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MG Midget and Sprite Technical - Fitting brake shoes

Hi bit of help please . It’s been a long time since I have replaced brake shoes and seem to have lost the knack or forgotten! When re installing what is the best procedure. Presume you can’t put the shoes in with the springs already located as it won’t go over the hub . So do you put both ,or one end of each spring in place and lever them in somehow ? I have disconnected the handbrake lever thinking that would make it easier but I’m still struggling . Getting the springs in with the shoes in place looks like it’s impossible as they are sat behind. . Any help appreciated thanks
Oh they are rears on a Mk11 midget
Mike Fairclough

remember..this was someone's job on the line so doesn't take forever! I fit the lower spring and one hook of the upper and wiggle the set in place...I have a flat-bladed screwdriver with a slot milled in the tip to push the final hook into place from behind..grabbing it through its locator hole with a pair of long nose pliers....good luck!
David Cox

Different technique: I assemble the shoes to the handbrake lever and top spring and then slip the whole unit into place behind the hub from the top. Then settle the shoes against the piston ends. This may need me to a screwdriver as a lever. Then I hook both ends of the lower spring into place but with the shoes on the front face of the adjuster plate so there is room, - just - to get fingers behind the shoes to locate the spring ends. Lastly I push one shoe into position in it's adjuster and then use a large flat bladed screwdriver to lever the second shoe out, over the adjuster end plate and it snaps into position.
GuyW

One of these Girling tools (64947019) is handy for removing and replacing the brake shoes when you have got the springs on: https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/313984590396?var=0&mkevt=1&mkcid=1&mkrid=710-53481-19255-0&campid=5338268676&toolid=10044&customid=Cj0KCQjw1N2TBhCOARIsAGVHQc5giF2L57oieOFcTrhJjTKvKq_L445525uZsDL0tJqmYnEL7jqAES8aAsL4EALw_wcB

Avoid early rear brakes (Frogeye, 948cc Mk2 Sprites and Mk1 Midgets) as putting in the brake retaining beehive springs (additional to the longitudinal springs) drives me to distraction, particularly as the quality of replacement beehive springs is poor (eventually found some good ones made in USA).

If you can do this without trapping your fingers, getting blood blisters or swearing a lot you are doing well. I find I never remember the hard won ‘knack’ as the job is seldom done.

For later brakes, one of these is handy is you are replacing the wheel cylinder too: http://www.minispares.com/product/Classic/Accessories/Tools/TOOL14.aspx?0108&ReturnUrl=/search/classic/Tools.aspxBack%20to%20search
AH Spares sells the correct clip to attach the wheel cylinder to the backplate.

Cheers
Mike
M Wood

The correct clip for the slave cyl is in fact a normal circlip on top of a Belleville washer, so only circlip pliers are needed - not the infernal tool and the equally infernal bent springy metal thing. AH spares stock the circlips.
David Smith

found a pic - can't seem to add a pic using Edit function !


David Smith

I assemble the shoes with the upper spring fitted at both ends and lower spring at one end.

Fit over the hub, locate the shoes onto handbrake mechanism and pistons, rear first. Push lower ends of shoes together to locate the free end of lower spring, then pull them apart and locate in adjuster.

No tools required and it takes less time to do than to type this.
Dave O'Neill 2

I use the same method as Dave.

Trev
T Mason

Thanks for all the suggestions I’m feeling a bit more confident . I will let you know what worked .If I get stuck Dave O I’ll get you round I’ll even make you a cuppa !
Mike Fairclough

Yes, mine is also the same method as Dave, though he puts it more succinctly! And for that last step "pull the ends of the shoe apart and locate in the adjuster" I always need to use a screwdriver to lever against the pull of the lower spring.
GuyW

Two comments on this thread,

1. The factory probably assembled the shoes onto the back plate then installed the back plate to the axle housing followed by the hub and half shaft . Maybe not, but that's how I would have set up the process.(former manufacturing engineer talking here)

2. How many of us use screwdrivers just for installing/removing screws? I know that I've found many more uses than that.

I've always found it interesting as to how many ways there are to solve a problem, all that work.
Martin

Mee too moment, same as Dave O and others.

But many ways to skin this cat.
anamnesis

It makes a change from the usual brake fitting question about which way round do the shoes go!
GuyW

Am I right in saying that the spring end adjacent to the handbrake actuator/lever should be hooked around the lever?
Bill Bretherton

It comes through the shoe under the lever, and presses up against the lever from underneath.

Easier with a picture.

I've got a picture on my laptop if someone else doesn't post one first.
anamnesis

Bill, is this any use?

Can't remember whose image it is or where this came from, possibly on this site a while back.

C


C Mee

Well it’s easy when you know how , pretty much did what Dave O said . Top spring in place, top of shoes into cylinder and brake lever, fit bottom spring then one shoe into adjuster and then lever other bottom one in . Now the other side . Single garage one side at a time most of us have to suffer !
Thanks all .
Mike Fairclough

Just an update on this might be of interest. Having put all this back together I still couldn’t get a decent rear brake or handbrake and one side getting very hot so on further dismantling I discovered that the rear wheel cylinders although looking fine had actually seized pistons slightly out hence the difficulty I had getting the shoes on . The cylinders had probably done less than 20 miles in the 15 yrs since I fitted them brand new so the moral use your car !
I also bought one of those tools for getting the C clip on the cylinder best £10 I’ve ever spent
Mike Fairclough

Mike. Water. Not lack of use per se.

Brake fluid absorbs the stuff. Even if you use the car, hence the brakes, the hygroscopic nature of conventional brake fluid, requires that you change the fluid at least every few years. Not least because it rusts vulnerable things like the insides of rear wheel cylinders.
anamnesis

Your exactly right Anam I syringed out the master cylinder and flushed through all 4 corners before I put new cylinders in
Mike Fairclough

Did I read someone on here had stainless steel liners in their wheel cylinders?
anamnesis

It can be done, --- at a cost. But given how chep NEW rear brake wheel cylinders are, it doesn't seem worth it.

"Most types of brake cylinders are suitable for stainless steel re-sleeving eg. Girling, Lockhead, ATE, Bonaldi, Bendix, Clayton, Dunlop, Delco etc.

This is a price guideline for double ended wheel cylinders internal bore sizes -

up to 1" £59.95 + VAT 20%
up to 1 1/8" £67.65 + VAT 20%
up to 1 1/4" £71.75 + VAT 20%
cylinders with a handbrake mechanism will incur an extra cost (this is normally £15.00 + VAT)"

https://classicparts4cars.co.uk/reconditioning-service-168-c.asp
anamnesis

Well with replacement cylinders at around a tenner and lasting 15 years (from Mike's experience) unless you plan on driving your car for more than 120 years then there's little point in paying that sort of money to get them sleeved!
GuyW

This thread was discussed between 08/05/2022 and 19/06/2022

MG Midget and Sprite Technical index

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