Minifin Troubles
Turbo Mini Forums

In the process of fitting some genuine Minifins to the rear. Just fitted new Quinton Hazell wheel cylinder and Unipart brake shoes. Cannot seem to get them backed off far enough to get the drum on. Please could you take a look at these two pictures and see if there is anything obvious I have wrong.





Should the left hand shoe be the other way up?

I think the left shoe is upside down. The matching holes/slots should be paralell to each other

Slots correct, ie, one rectangular opposite the funny shaped one but I think both shoes are upside down so each end of the handbrake lever(s) are in the wrong shaped slot....

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Make sure that the handbrake cable is loose.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Look here if this helps http://www.minispares.com/images/products/600/21A1060KIT.jpg as Rod sais they look backwards, i had trouble with some unipart shoes in the past being slightly too thick too.

If the picture above is correct. I've mounted the rear brakes incorrectly for 14 years.

Edited by Vegard on 3rd Jul, 2009.

Well I've always put the "long" end of the handbrake lever in the rectangular slot and the "pivot" end in the funny shaped slot - as per the MiniSpares photo - and in the first of svrdaniels' photos, it the opposite way around.....

This also puts the "leading" edge of the brake lining the right way around.

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Thanks for the advice guys. I was looking everywhere for a picture last night. I'll try switching them round this evening after work.

One last thing our yoyr pistons fully retracted?

Edited by Mr Joshua on 3rd Jul, 2009.

Own the day

Yep - all shoes upside down. The end of the shoe with no lining on is the leading edge.

I'm saure you can back off the adjuster to the point that the sliding bits(god knows what they are called!) touch. I can see a good 3-4mm between yours - have you tried unscrewing the adjuster completely?

I know them as wedges, but there is probably some other fancy name for them.

My money is on the handbrake levers holding the shoes too far out. You can see that the pistons should be able to go further into the cylinder.

Check that the quadrants have not seized and are not holding the handbrake cable tight.

EDIT: Just noticed that the cables not fitted in one of the pictures. So ignore me.

Edited by Paul S on 3rd Jul, 2009.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

is the bung still in back of the cylinder? this could be preventing the pistons pushing in more as well

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

I think I have done mine wrong, is the leading edge of the shoe the bit with no friction material on the end?

Then that makes the min spares picture wrong too! I need to look at mine as I have no idea if they are correctly fitted anyone near a haynes manual.

Own the day

The left piston doesnt look fully retracted to me.

1/4 Mile 14.3secs 96Mph Terminal 10psi of boost.


Fibreglass Parts? - http://www.tdkracing.co.uk/
Split Rims? - http://www.force-racing.co.uk/

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

From haynes manual...

On 3rd Jul, 2009 Mr Joshua said:
Then that makes the min spares picture wrong too! I need to look at mine as I have no idea if they are correctly fitted anyone near a haynes manual.

On 3rd Jul, 2009 graemec said:
Yep - all shoes upside down. The end of the shoe with no lining on is the leading edge.

Edited by sim_ou_nao on 3rd Jul, 2009.

Pedro Silva

http://miniciados.blogspot.pt/

But from the Haynes (or any other) manual, you need to know whether left or right in the photo as they will both be mirror images.......

Schrödinger's cat - so which one am I ???

Given that the Haynes is a picture of the other side, then they are on wrong.

Saul Bellow - "A great deal of intelligence can be invested in ignorance when the need for illusion is deep."
Stephen Hawking - "The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge."

Edit: silly comment, just ignore me! If you go by the direction of wheel rotation and leading edge you can't go wrong I guess.

Edited by Jay#2 on 3rd Jul, 2009.

It is this picture from the Haynes manual that got me into trouble in the first place. I am off into the garage shortly when the kids are in bed. I'll going to turn both shoes up the other way, I am pretty certain from what has been said today that it should be sorted. I'll try to post the 'definative' picture!

On 3rd Jul, 2009 sim_ou_nao said:
From haynes manual...

On 3rd Jul, 2009 Mr Joshua said:
Then that makes the min spares picture wrong too! I need to look at mine as I have no idea if they are correctly fitted anyone near a haynes manual.

On 3rd Jul, 2009 graemec said:
Yep - all shoes upside down. The end of the shoe with no lining on is the leading edge.

Just been out and turned the shoes around. The situation improved slightly and the handbrake mechansm definately sits better now. Still much too tight though and I still cannot get the drum on properly. Tried swapping parts out to track down the problem. Super Minifin drum seems okay, the old cast iron one was even tighter. Finally swopped out the new Unipart brake shoes for the old (contaminated) Lockheed ones and the drum slipped ona treat. On closer inspection it looks to me as if the profile of the rib on the shoes is not correct. Going to sort myself out another set of shoes tomorrow.

Interesting to note that Gavin from Mini Spares also said he had problems with these Unipart shoes. The saga continues...