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MG MGB Technical - Drum Hand Brake lever

Guys,

I have removed the rear drums to clean & service all the parts as required. (I last had the rear shoes replaced by a garage over 10 years ago so more recent work has been limited to cleaning, checking for wheel cylinder leaks & adjustment).
A closer inspection showed that the off side shoes had been put on the wrong way round , but the near side was correct.
I have therefore removed everything off the off side apart from the w/cylinder & the adjuster (both Ok).
Having cleaned up & painted the drum handbrake lever ,i was experimenting getting the new springs in place , checking all the while with various utube videos from J.T.etc.
I am beginning to wander if the lever i took off is in fact the LH lever turned upside down , with the RH one incorrectly installed upside down on the LH side (which i haven't taken apart yet).
The photo is of the one i removed from the RH side turned over. There was some tension on the rod between the two sides of the car when i took out the cotter pin which adds to my theory.
On the utube videos i can't see if the short part of the lever is on top or beneath which would help.
I'm sure this query will have arisen before!
Cheers,
Charles




Charles9

Guys,

On a related issue, i have configured the brake shoes for the off side (RH) & have placed the top & bottom springs in the holes i think they should go.

On some pictures i have seen the top spring go through the rectangular hole just below the round one it is in. (The near side (LH) is still on the car & configured like this).

The bottom springs are handed , if i used the other one , the straight part on the left would angle down rather than up. Again i have seen pictures showing either & i can't see clearly on utube videos which way.....

For completeness i have just placed the handbrake lever spring in the middle (i am aware to orientate the body of the spring away from the wheel cylinder).

Cheers,

Charles



Charles9

Charles,
I found these photos somewhere. I used these as a guide when I overhauled my rear brakes about 3 years ago.I believe Haynes is not clear or possibly incorrect.





Craig M Harvey

Brake drum lever orientation is tricky as it may depend on the axle type, and the manual and various supplier web site drawings contain a number of errors.

On the Salisbury axle at least they must be as image 1 i.e. the lever that goes over the wheel cylinder is above the lever that goes out of the backplate.

The other way round the rear shoe is lifted up and the end of the lever that goes over the wheel cylinder fouls the shoe as indicated in the 2nd image and holds both shoes out as if the brakes are applied, making drum fitting, adjustment and functioning very difficult if not impossible.

I always use the round holes for the springs, as it seems more logical to me, but it doesn't make a huge difference.






paulh4

Guys,

Thanks for your replies - here's a picture of my Nr Side(LH) (before i dismantle it) where the layout follows Craig's photos & uses the rectangular hole at the top but mine doesn't at the bottom.

On my "mock up"I think i should use the other "sided" spring at the bottom so it will angle down like Craig's.

Paul's second photo appears to be looking outwards at the inner side of the Nr Side(LH)demonstrating the effect of the small part of the lever on top which could foul the w/cylinder.This makes me conclude that my drum brake levers were probably on the correct way round - when i took the cotter pin out on the offside i don't think it had been removed since leaving the factory ,(knowing what fair weather driving the car has had since the shoes etc. were last changed etc).
Unless anyone else has them fitted the other way round !
I don't know why Moss draws a distinction re the drum handbrake levers for 1978 cars onwards given that the part numbers for LH & RH are the same as 67 -78 cars.

Cheers,
Charles




Charles9

Charles,
I don't know about for MGB but wonder if it's the same confusion as with Spridgets, wrong factory drawing and different opinions on the way they should be.

I too wondered about the lever on the Spridget brakes and if Moss show them as handed correctly (for Spridgets).

I hope this doesn't confuse but here's for Spridgets -





Nigel Atkins

More, photos from David Smith and Lawrence Slater.






Nigel Atkins

Thanks Nigel,
It seems the midget boys & girls have similar problems with their drum brakes! The midgets , from your diagrams & photos have the wheel cylinder at the top , hand brake attachment as well, but with the adjuster at the bottom.
Cheers,
Charles
Charles9

They're not strictly at 12 and 6, more 5 and 11 (IIRC, just trying to picture lying on the ground and reaching in with the square spanner.

Adjuster is definitely at the bottom otherwise there'd be even more underbreathe cursing than there already is.

Cylinder and lever are at top, again whether the levers are correctly handed or upside down I've never fully ben sure but they do work the handbrake.

Having both springs behind the shoes makes fitting the shoes either easy or lots of attempts and swearing, the fun is you never know which and why but you can guess which it usually is, not that I've had much practice thank gawd.

Nigel Atkins

Yes, Spridget brakes are the other way up.
Dave O'Neill 2

Spridget wheel cylinders are at the top of the drum, not at the bottom. I believe that the point is that the leading edge needs to catch or bite into the rotating direction of the drum, regardless of whether the cylinders are mounted at the top or the bottom.
Glenn Mallory

MGB shoes are fitted such that a point on the drum passes over the 'empty' part of the shoe when the car is travelling forwards before it reaches the friction material. Looks like Spridget is the same. With the single wheel cylinder that makes one shoe leading and one trailing in either direction of travel, presumably for relatively even braking both forward and backwards. The position of the single wheel cylinder around the back-plate has no effect on that.
paulh4

This thread was discussed between 04/02/2021 and 15/02/2021

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