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April 30. 2025

Front Brakes

Earlier MGA cars, including mine, sported largish 10 inch drum brakes at all four corners.  The front brakes were of a dual leading shoe design, meaning that each shoe had it's own slave cylinder, and enjoyed a small amplification of the force applied by the hydraulic system.

The images to follow might be from either side of the car, depending on which was the better picture.

The backing plates are the foundation for the front brakes.  Mine were dirty and rusty.




I pulled off everything possible.  Both slave cylinders were thoroughly seized, so they got trashed.  The brake shoes had parted from their linings, so they got trashed, too.




Backing plates got blasted...




...followed by a nice powder coat.




By this time, I had the new slave cylinders.




The two cylinders need a bridge pipe that connects them.  The old one was pretty rusty.




This is brake line made from a copper-nickel alloy.  It bends easily, and is highly corrosion resistant.  I find that it is easier to shape into smooth curves if it starts out straight.  That shiny doodad is a tubing straightener.




The drums looked OK at first glance, but on cleanup, some serious pitting on the working surface was evident.  I decided not to use them.




Got some new drums and powder coated them.  The "MAX DIA 255.5 MM" (10.059") marking was good information I filed away.




Out of curiosity, I retrieved the rear drums (same part number as the front on this car).  I checked them for pitting and found none, so I measured them.




They measured 10.040 +/-.  I reasoned that the front brakes, with two adjusters, probably had a better tolerance for oversized drums, so I decided to put the larger drums on the front, and the new ones on the back.

So I cleaned up and coated the old ones.




Speaking of adjusters, here they are.  They were pretty rusty, so they got derusted and zinc plated.




I gathered up the mounting hardware for the backing plates.  Those are re-plated original bolts.  I replace split lock washers with flat washers and lock nuts everywhere I can.




And cinched 'em down.




Got some new shoes and test fitted them with the old springs. 




This is as far as I can go until I get the hubs installed.


It's really good to see this front end coming together, and it seems to be going pretty quickly.  I have around $200 in the front brakes, mainly for the cylinders and shoes.

Comments to Ed at elhollin1@yahoo.com

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