Chris Williams' Journal

These probably should have been replaced back in 2007.




New pads as well. Had some difficulty getting the pistons to retract.



A bit of a comparison between the old and the new.







Tried them out and all seems well. No suggestion that the rears may lockup. All seems good. Pedal a little spongy.

Will ask the question on the main forum re: Spongy pedal.

There's an active discussion on DIY rear Discs for MGB here:

http://www.mgexp.com/journal/geezer/16358
Now an additional spring to encourage Ebrake pad release appears to present itself here on this pic.



If you look at this picture particularly the black pins supporting the pads, I strikes me that a 'push' spring on these pins between each pad would release the pads from the rotor after the parking brake lever was released.

I have some spring steel wire that I should be able to coil up some suitable spring to fit here.

In the next few days I'll see if I can make these and install them.

What's the adage. Measure twice cut once.

Hmm, lets just say I've ordered a new handbrake cable. Should be here about new years.

Well, I'm done! Put the new MC in tonight - what a bastard that is! Haven't put the firewall plug back in yet and I'll sit on it overnight before I fill it up with new brake fluid and bleed the brakes. But it's all in and done.
I've ordered new pads for the Festiva calipers but as I'm still waiting for them I've put the old ones in temporarily. They have lots of meat on them but it shouldn't be a big deal to swap them out when the new ones arrive.

Pics tomorrow. But I should be able to finish the back off tomorrow and start on the front. I've got new hubs, bearings, rotors and wheels for the front as well.

Next day:

Filled the MC and started to fill the lines and calipers. I was by myself today so I wasn't able to get the lines completely clear of air. But close enough to take it for a short drive and although the pedal was a bit spongy everything seemed ok.

The eBrake needs some work. A new cable may help but to make sure I think I'll shorten the cable myself. That way I should be able to get it just right.
Some would question me modifying the cable but I'm confident that I can get it done accurately and more importantly - safely.

The 15" wheels look great and I'm happy with my decision to go with the grey painted wheels rather than chromed.







Compared to the 14" here:


These front hubs and wheels are next - maybe after the eBrake.

These turned up this morning in the post.



So these can go on.
According to the instructions that came with the kit these pads are held in place using the large split pins shown here.



I wasn't really happy with this arrangement so I made some pins and used them instead.



The pads were a bit too snug a fit into the calipers as well so I sanded a whisker off them before putting them on.

All in all, they went on fairly well and here is a picture of them in one of the calipers.



I'm pretty pleased with how they look as well. I think they should work really well.

In a previous entry I mentioned that I ordered a new master cylinder for the brakes. When I rebuilt the brakes a few years ago I cleaned up the old square metal MC and painted it with POR15 - silver. Came up ok and looked ok at the time. However, Id noticed lately that the finish had deteriorated and it had started to rust around the cap.
I'd decided to replace it with a new one some time ago but had not gotten around to it.
Now seemed a good time to do that.
Anyway it turned up quite quickly only a couple of days after I'd ordered it. So as I was still waiting on other bits to continue the brakes I started to work on replacing the old square MC.
It's an absolute bugger to get to the bolts and the connections around the pedal box but I took off the first bit of the brake line as well and with a little work I was able to get the old one out. The shelf under the MC was in bad shape and it had started to rust as well.
I got in there with a large screwdriver and scraped off as much of the rusty stuff of as I could, then I remembered how I'd cleaned out the rusty passages on the boat when I replaced the bellows a few years ago.

I'd made up a bunch of spring steel rods about 6" long and brazed them together a bit like a bunch of flowers. When that was held in a drill it worked really well scabbing out rust and paint and I used it again here to good effect.

I used some rust dissolver to neutralise any remaining rust and after it was dry gave it a good flood of Penatrol. Left it for a few days to dry and this morning gave it a good brush with some black epoxy paint.

Here's a Picture of the new MC.



And here's two pics of the area under the MC after painting this morning.
It looks daggier than it actually is.





I cleaned up the brake line to the first junction as well and gave it a coat of epoxy Black.

Here's a picture of that after it had dried as well.



That was last Friday. (Except the painting of the shelf under the pedal box - that was this morning.)