[Healeys] Disc brake conversion, was 100 BN2 almost done....

[Tadeusz Malkiewicz]

Rich, Kees, all,

A small comment on the brake conversion: yes, the thought has crossed my
mind, but I actually never thought of converting it to the Girling set-up,
but rather to the Dunlop set-up used on the 100S. In my view (I may be
wrong), this makes it a period type modification, not a modern upgrade.

I even gotten as far as getting the calipers front & rear (for the square
pads), but never really decided on the pistons. There is a company in UK (BG
Developments) making modern piston conversions (DW resells them I believe),
but if you multiply the cost by 8 it get's quite high. On top there is the
rear disc problem (it was discussed on the British car forum some time ago).
You can either get from DW or convert from Range Rover or BMW. Last, there
are the brackets - these can be sourced from DW as well.

All in all, it's a pretty expensive toy and to be honest, neither am I 100%
convinced this is the way to go nor do I have the money now to purchase it
all...

But I would be grateful if anyone could share experiences of having such
system, how does it work in practice or what's the stopping power in
comparison to a pretty good drum system on the 100.

BTW, before anyone asks, I have not managed to obtain the rear calipers with
handbrake setup for 100S (I believe they are unique to the 100S) but rather
Jaguar ones... :-)

Tadek

-----Original Message-----
From: Rich C [mailto:richchrysler at quickclic.net] 
Sent: Friday, September 10, 2010 7:04 PM
To: Oudesluys; Tadeusz Malkiewicz
Cc: healeys at autox.team.net
Subject: Re: [Healeys] 100 BN2 almost done....

Kees,

Perhaps you're not as familiar with the Hundred as I read your description 
of where and how to anchor the capillary line. Your description applies to 
later 6 cylinder cars.

On the Hundred, as with the early 100/Six, the capillary line and 
temperature sensing bulb fastens into the header tank of the radiator, then 
the line travels along the inner right side of the shroud lip, fastened by 
small wrap over clips in 3 places along the side and a 4th along the back 
before it turns down exactly as Tadek shows and goes through a rubber 
grommet to the inside of the bulkhead. It then turns to the left (LH drive 
car) and goes along the inside of the bulkhead and turns once more along the

outboard side of the steering column brace where it fastens with another 
wrap around clip along with the oil line. It then makes an S curve over to 
the left and enters the back side of the gauge.

Front disc brakes on this lovely and accurate BN2? I should hope not. 
Properly set up drums need much less pedal effort for greater stopping 
ability in normal street driving. Discs advantages only show themselves in 
repeated hard braking such as in a race, but without a servo assist require 
more leg effort. Of course a properly set-up drum system needs occasional 
adjustment for optimum braking. I think it's called routing maintenance.

Rich