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From: Angela Hervey-Tennyson & Peter Westcott <toobmany@bigpond.com>
To:
Cc: 'spidgets@autox.team.net'
Subject: Re: 8" brakes - Inquiring Minds Want To Know
Date: Thursday, 29 April 1999 21:50
The 8" fronts on the Bug are from an A40 Farina and bolt straight onto the
stub axle with no clearance problems and are a very common conversion out
here. I also now of a Sprite with 9" drums on the front but they had to be
turned down to clear the steering arms. A couple of things have to be
sorted with regard to cylinder bore sizes. The Farina has .8" wheel
cylinders so to retain a usable pedal the M/C needs to be sleeved down to
3/4" as do the rear wheel cylinders. It's far easier to fit the Bug front
wheel cylinders, it takes a little fettling but it's worth it. These drums
have had a finned alloy ring shrunk on to the circumference of the iron
drum (don't try this at home, we had an engineer do it for us) to act as a
heat sink (alright so I fibbed a little about alloy drums) and with high
temp linings front and rear and braided steel hoses all round don't give a
moments trouble.
The 8" rears on the MkII are from the Wolseley 1500 and are Lockheeds, very
similar to the Girlings from the Riley 1.5 that were used in Bug disc brake
kit. They bolt strraight onto the axle and give no clearance problems but
they have to be juggled around so the handbrake levers clear the spring
towers. I used Lockheeds and the handbrake rods almost touch the towers.
I also had to twist the rods to mate up with the handbrake lever in the
wheel cylinder. Make sure you use 3/4" rear wheel cylinders. Used in
conjunction with standard Sprite discs (almost identical specs to the
Healey 'thin disc' kit) this is a very good setup although under severe
circuit conditions with lots of weight transfer I suppose they could lock
up. The racing cars here use 8" drums but fit larger discs to the front.
On the road and in rallies I've not had this happen. I fitted them mostly
because they are more stable than the 7" rears and I'm convinced most
Sprites fade their brakes because the rears aren't working properly. The
setup I use is standard shoes on the back with high temp pads on the front
and braided steel flexible hoses. I aslo use a late Sprite tandem cylinder
set up to operate on each axle, not diagonally.
Peter
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From: Haynes, Mark <mhaynes@ball.com>
To: 'Angela Hervey-Tennyson & Peter Westcott' <toobmany@bigpond.com>
Cc: 'spidgets@autox.team.net'
Subject: RE: Inquiring Minds Want To Know
Date: Wednesday, 28 April 1999 23:30
Peter- where did you get the 8" drums from? What kind of interference
problems occur using these? Inquiring minds want to Know.
Mark Haynes
'62 HAN6
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Angela Hervey-Tennyson & Peter Westcott [SMTP:toobmany@bigpond.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 1999 3:40 AM
> To: spridgets@autox.team.net
> Subject: Re: Inquiring Minds Want To Know
>
> Two cars -
> 1/ standard spec MkII with following diversions; rib case gearbox(for
> better ratios and reversing light switch), 1275 clutch (std slips in
> competition), 4.5" rostyles (strength), 4.55:1 diff (for climbing hills),
> extractors (came with the car), specially made high strength axles, 1.5"
> lowered, 1.5 degrees neg camber, front discs and 8" rear drums (period
> mods), tandem master cylinder from a late Midget (comp regs), electric
> fuel
> pump with cutout switch (period mod), Halda and stopwatch. This is
> Angela's everyday transport which I lightly modified for Targa Tasmania
> and
> got second in class to a Mini which was built to win. The only trouble
we
> have is fuel vaporisation in heavy traffic.
>
> 2/ standard MkI with following diversions; rib case gearbox (see above),
> 8"
> front brakes with finned aloy drums (period mod), Mk4 exhaust manifold
> (too
> many broken flanges), 1275 clutch (see above), Halda and stopwatch,
> voltmeter, uprated cable drive dynamo and control box, Morris Minor fuel
> pump (period mod), 4.55:1 diff (see above). This isn't a daily driver
but
> I use it on rallies (it's the sideways dirty one with the fastback
hardtop
> in the screensaver) and other comp events as well as touring. The only
> trouble is a dicky needle and seat in one of the carbs. This 80,000 mile
> car was found in a carport where it'd been stored under a tarp for twenty
> years. The only thing missing was the original horn which used to perish
> quickly anyway. It still retains things like the heatshield for the fuel
> pump and all the boot trim. Some of this has been put into storage to
> prevent damage.
>
> The only 'modern' things I use on both cars are Hylomar sealant
(developed
> in the 60's anyway) and synthetic oils in engine, gearbox and diff. And
> both cars have had an extra standard fuse box added. The MkI has no
> engine
> mods (it's still got original size bores, pistons and crank) and the MkII
> is up to 997 Cooper spec.
>
> It might seem they're not 'standard' standard but I tried to build them
as
> they would have been in their heydays. The events I do are generally
> endurance events (and Donald Healy was expert at this kind of thing) so
> the
> cars have to be reliable and easy to drive over long distances.
>
> Peter Westcott
> ----------
> From: TYPE79@ix.netcom.com
> To: spridgets@autox.team.net
> Subject: Inquiring Minds Want To Know
> Date: Wednesday, 28 April 1999 16:07
>
> Yo,
> (That's Philly Talk). With all due respect to those owners that
constantly
> seek to modify and improve their Sprites for daily use, are there any
> owners "lurking" out there that maintain their cars as they were run in
> "their day"?
>
> How are you owners coping without extra fuses, without Permatex, without
> dual-line braking systems, etc. etc. etc. etc.?
>
> Are you still running SU's on a stock manifold? An Austin ribcase on a
> 1275
> or an Austin smoothcase on a 948?
>
> What are your experiences with the "factory issue"?
>
> Are you running in the pink? I know I am?
>
> Again, please don't take this as a slight on mods, mods are great, but
> what
> about the plain vanilla users?
>
> Jay Fishbein
> Mk 1/2 Bugeye
> Mk 2 aka HAN-6
> Innocenti-S (It's in your Sprite books, look it up.)
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