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MG TD TF 1500 - Bonded or Rivetted ?

I have never trusted glued brake shoes, and now with good reason. I was just pulling the TF into my driveway and all of a sudden, my rear right wheel locked up, fortunately at just a crawl speed.

Inspection shows that both shoes simply became un-bonded and were circulating with the brake drum. Fortunately no damage, but of course, I need to replace my rear brake shoes. I estimate that I had less than 4,000 miles on them.

I got these from Moss on one of their “specials”. I rarely buy from them and now I know why. The shoes I removed were rivetted and were probably in quite good shape. So I’m going to dig these out and put them back on ‘till I can find set of new rivetted brake shoes.

But it seems that rivetting brake shoes is now a lost art and on quick browsing, it seems I may be out of luck.

Anyone care to comment.

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gordon A Clark

One of our MG midget racers recently totaled his car because a rear shoe came unbonded. The situation was made worse by the fact that he was using a fancy braking system that wasn't properly adjusted, so his front brakes wouldn't engage, either.

I understand the shoes came from a race supplier and were rebuilt by a company local to that supplier. In other words, they weren't Moss sourced.

In the discussions on this we discovered there are a number of performance brake suppliers that will supply riveted shoes, though they are pricey. I think if you do an internet search you can come up with some. If not, I'll dig out the names we learned about if anyone is interested.
David Littlefield

Interesting Gord. I've over 20000 miles on the TF's bonded shoes from Moss. Cir. 2004. The TC that was here got new shoes also from Moss. The pin arangement wasn't quite right and I had to modify them to work with the hand brake linkage. I am aware that they are now made in China, as are almost all brake shoes manufactured today. Doesn't give me a warm fuzzy feeling. I'm not sure what the alternative is as the brake/clutch shop closed here years ago...along with the starter/dynamo rebuild shop....and last year the chrome shop. What are you gonna do?
MG LaVerne

Gord, a few years ago I decided to do the riveted bit . I was able to buy shoes and rivets for a decent price. Bought an anvil and die set from the UK and went to work. About half way through the job I started to do some arithmetic. Try this for fun - measure the depth of the rivet head hole in a shoe. Now measure the thickness of the head of a rivet. The difference is how much usable brake lining you have- 'tain't very much.
The ones I use are kevlar linings from the guy in Ohio who's not doing them anymore. I think Steve Wincze has a good brake shop down his way. Bud
Bud Krueger

I redid mine with riveted shoes. All tooling is available from aircraft tool supply..among other sources..they now make a version of the rivet tool that squeezes the rivets rather than the hammer/anvil type. Regards, tom
tm peterson

Lots to check out.

Thanks folks.

Gord Clark
Rockburn, Qué.
Gordon A Clark

Gordon,

I have bought this tool and a set of linings with rivets and did the job myself. You will need to make up a specific flaring bit.

http://www.rapcoinc.com/brake_rivet_tool.asp

John
J Scragg

Gord.
After Tampa Brake and Clutch went belly up there was a guy in Tampa that serviced commercial elevators. They use various adaptations of brake shoes. He rivited a complete set for me for $70.00 at that time.
It might pay you to find someone like that in the great frozen North.
Sandy
ss sanders

John - checked their web-site. Tool looks good but do I have the skills to drill partway through a brake lining?

Also, saw no copper or brass rivets on their web-site. I'll contact them.

Sandy - good thought. Might have a source.

Gord
Gordon A Clark

Shoes usually come pre drilled, I've never had bonded shoes come loose in 6o years of MGing.
Terry
Terry Sanders

This thread was discussed between 19/07/2014 and 22/07/2014

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