Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing 4/4 Sport Changing Rear Brake Shoes

Hi all
Near impossible!! 2 days of head banging!! I was ready to through in the towel..
I have changed loads of drum brakes and have spring pullers and other gadgets from the white van with red writing, but this had me beat 2 frig'in days garrrrrrr.

I was told it would be near impossible without removing the Hub for access, it seems that this is the case unless you have the fingers of a stick insect with the grip of a free climber, rather than my sausage fingers!

Today a a friend from the "Darkside" (octagonal badge man) popped over to laugh at a man with "Wings" that takes two days to not change the brake shoes........

We came up with a cunning plan.
Remove the rear brake cylinder to gain access to the Automatic adjustment mechanism and top springs that are below the BC and behind the hub.

One and a half hours later we have removed the BC's fitted the shoes and re-fitted the BC's.. I'm now going to get some braided hoses, front and rear, to finish the job before bleeding the brakes.


Hope this is a help

I had a similar problem when I changed my handbrake cable earlier this year! In the end I took the car over to Mike Duncans , having done all the expensive work in stripping out the interior to replace the cable. He struggled for half an hour until his son Ben told him to pull the hub!

There really is no access and my concern was that I'd pop off the springs and then not be able to refit them. Pulling the hub is not that easy either...unless you have a special puller made up...as had Mike.

Hi Jay

I had ordered a puller and Hub holder "spanner" yesterday.

But will now leave it until I do the R&P and LSD. Oh and a rear disc conversion to make life easy later in the year.

With the BC removed it was like most other rear brakes. The reason we went down the BC removal route was because I popped a piston out yesterday, And would now need to bleed the brakes anyway. It turned out to be a good turn of events,
and now takes this to a level that any one that can change out the BC and bleed the brakes can now service the Rear brakes shoes with out the need for spending a arm and leg at the dealers


Cain

I spoke to Ben last week and he told me the worst job to do was Hand Brake Cables .

I was quoted £300 to change the brake cable Having done it myself bar the final fitting to the drum....I can see why!

Last year it cost me 460 including MOT

You do end up knowing your car intimately if you do it yourself though.....stripping all the interior out to get to the blinking thing. Why on earth they didn't run the cable under the car I have no idea! The £300 was a rough estimate from Mike Duncan whose rates are very reasonable......hate to think how much the factory would charge!

Luckily I did not have to change the cable in mine, just the bolt in the handbrake itself, took a good while to get the seats out, rear and front tunnel etc.

But I agree there must be an easier way - perhaps in a pipe underneath?

MGB handbrake cable runs inside the transmission tunnel, so its probably quite common.

I managed to do my hand brake last year. Unlike Jay I didn't strip the inside of the mog out. ( I can't find the post to help Jay on how).

The cable is attached to the shoes by twisting the hand brake lever shoe out a bit once the retaining spring to back plate is removed. A pair of long nosed piers to locate the nipple into the lever (hook the spring on the leading edge and then flip the niple over.

My cable is now only fixed at the axle end and the front. not in the middle you need a 90' ratchet screw driver to release the cable from fixings and undo the prop from axle end to give the room to work in.