Hydraulic brake conversion

[The_Flying_Doctor]

I'm looking to convert my 1937 Ruby to hydraulic brakes. Bill William's says these are Morris Minor 7" kits and are easily sourced. Yeah back in 1958! Does anyone know where I could acquire such a kit?

[Stuart Giles]

It shouldn't be too difficult to find a used set of backplates -they take unmodified standard Morris Minor components. Many purists have reverted their cars to cable brakes. Otherwise, Tony Betts used to do a set of Aluminium backplates that took Minor wheel cylinders etc. He may still have the casting patterns.

The steel backplates used in  many of the kits are  Minor pre 1963 front backplates (later ones are 8") and any 1952 onward Minor rear backplate (all OHV Minors had the same 7" rear brakes) these backplates had an offset centrepiece welded in so that the Minor brake shoes line up with the A7 Girling style brake drum when the backplate is bolted to a Girling style axle.  Starting with some secondhand Minor backplates, they're a fairly straightforward fabrication job to modify if all else fails.

[Howard Wright]

Hi

This has been well covered in previous posts, try using the search button!

I think John Barlow also does aluminium back plates.

However doesn’t your Ruby have rod brakes on the rear?  If so the fuss of converting to hydraulics is probably not worth it.  I built my previous 1936 special (now sold) with hydraulics and ,to be honest, they were a pain to set up.  The major difficulty is getting enough movement on the master cylinder push rod.  Other problems came about with the cam adjusters. Original minor ones are like gold dust, new ones break very easily. You also have to decide how to bleed the front cylinders as the steering arm sits just where the bleed nipple fits!

Having now rebuilt and driven a 1930 saloon (not reputed to have the best brakes) I can say that a well set up cable system is quite adequate to stop our little cars.  

Cheers

Howard

[Steve kay]

Either we can give a chorus, or make individual comments. No, don't do it! The implications of the hydraulic conversion have been discussed in detail on the forum, and go much further than backplate swapping. Specially if you have rear rods, just spend time learning how to set the brakes up and they are perfectly useable.

[sebring115]

Note you can also use frogeye sprite brakes which are essentially the same as Morris minor. Most sprite drivers convert to the later discs

[Charles P]

A counterpoint to the supposed chorus.

Never regretted fitting hydraulic brakes but it is a faff. 
Be ready to faff.

Charles

[The_Flying_Doctor]

Thanks for the information and advice. I think I'll stick with the existing brake setup for the time being. I will need to make up new rods and cables though.

[Stuart Giles]

A counterpoint to the supposed chorus.

Never regretted fitting hydraulic brakes but it is a faff. 
Be ready to faff.

Charles

I'd have to be a discordant voice in the chorus too. I had a cable braked A7 as a daily driver in London and the South East during most of the 1980s -my heart was in my mouth rather too much of the time as a result of the antics of drivers in modern cars. Never had any limited braking performance issues with my hydraulic braked A7 special even though general driving standards certainly haven't improved since then.

[Steve kay]

Stuart

If the current machine is a special, how original is the front suspension and the axle location, or inadequacy thereof?

My one brake alteration would be to put on Bowdenex cables, if I could ever find a set. This would be to allow marginally better turning circle, or at least to execute tight turns without slowing forward progress by tightening cables applying brakes. I know doing Autosolos and Driving Tests in a Ruby is probably a sad activity but somebody has to do it.

[Parazine]

Back in the seventies, a lot of Ruby types that turned up had hydraulic brakes, usually fitted in the fifties/sixties. We used to strip them off (they were all seized and/or leaking) and throw them away in favour of standard brakes. Girling backplates normally fitted straight on, even to pre '36 axles that had been modified. 

All part of the fun of running desperate old cars on a shoestring in those days!