Talk Morgan Forums Morgan Sports Cars Maintenance & Servicing Front wheel brake cylinder gasket ?

I'm replacing the front wheel brake cylinders on my 1953 plus 4.

On removing the old units, I found that they had gasket material (indeed what looks like a proper manufactured gasket) between the brake cylinders and the back plate. Here's the evidence of what remains of these gaskets after I had removed the cylinders:




This seems a bit odd to me. I don't think I have seen gaskets in similar positions before. And they are not providing a liquid seal. They don't appear on the Girling diagram for these brakes.




Does anyone know if there should or should not be gaskets here ?

Many thanks

I imagine Copper Grease would fulfill the same function, happy to be corrected though.

I have an exploded view of the HL3 brakes and it calls it a dust cover. It is in the OWM 796 book page 135.

No, the dust cover is the rubber end seal on the piston, That's clearly got a gasket where the wheel cylinder mounts to the back plate. You could easily make some out of gasket paper of a heavy gauge but to be honest clean the areas down and use a little silicone (mastic type). I can't see that its there for any other reason than to prevent rusting of the backplate edges/cylinder body. Not now used on modern applications.

No actually it's self evident about the wheel cylinder dust covers but if you care to check the OP's question is answered correctly in my first post and I'll send him a scanned copy from the book in question when I get home later

Thanks, Rich - I do already have Clark's book - but I think I have the HLSS front brakes rather than an HL3 - which is I think used on the rear wheels. Either way I think I'm going to mount the cylinders directly on the back plate - it seems.a good thing to get them to be as rigidly mounted as possible.

That makes a lot of sense, good luck.
I’m not familiar with anything earlier than 94 where Morgan are concerned but I do recall seeing those dust covers on maybe my Singer Chamois.

Just had a google on girling brake cylinders and came across dingocroft.co.uk who are landrover specialists. They offer a “Girling seal kit for wheel cylinders” for £9.80 and it looks to include those gaskets which seem to be listed as “cylinder dust seals.” Strangely though, the kit is for a pair of cylinders but 4 gaskets are included.

Thanks, Doug. I think the Landrover kit is probably for four cylinders - and there are two cylinders per brake drum. (They are not 'double headed' cylinders so only have one seal and one dust cap per cylinder). It's interesting they provide gaskets with that kit, but not for other similar looking kits. I'm going to the Beaulieu Autojumble this weekend so will have a rummage around and see if I can find out more.

I would say it's good practice to fit the gaskets as you will suffer a tiny bit of water ingress via the backplate around the cylinder if left off...and we all know how Mogs suffer from seized wheel cylinders due to the piston ends corroding in the trapped dampness inside the brake drum