MG-Cars.net

Welcome to our resource for MG Car Information.

Recommendations

Parts

MG parts spares and accessories are available for MG T Series (TA, MG TB, MG TC, MG TD, MG TF), Magnette, MGA, Twin cam, MGB, MGBGT, MGC, MGC GT, MG Midget, Sprite and other MG models from British car spares company LBCarCo.

MG TD TF 1500 - TD Brake shoes

My brakes are poor. Good pedal but takes too long to stop. I am planning to
have the shoes relined with a softer material. Does anyone know the correct
thickness of the lining. Many thanks Lionel TD3490.
L.F. Thorne

Lionel,

From the description of your problem it may be that the front wheel cylinders are installed upside down.
To check, all you need to do is lift both the front wheels, remove the front hubcaps and look inside the brake drum through, the shoe adjusting hole. This assumes that the hole in the wheel and the hole in the drum are aligned, it not then you need to also remove the wheel. If the adjusting screw of the front cylinder is BELOW the cylinder, then it is correct, if it is ABOVE then it is incorrect and needs inverting. This holds true for both front wheels.

John
J Scragg

Hi John, Thank you for your response. On the front wheels the adjusting screw for the front cylinder is below the cylinder and the adjusting screw for
the rear cylinder is above the cylinder.Lionel.
L.F. Thorne

I have that problem with some shoes that I had relined locally,,, they used hard material,, It took a lot of effort to stop,,, put on shoes from one of the MG suppliers, and the problem went away..
SPW Wincze

It's more likely that one or more wheel cylinders are frozen, diminishing your brake effectiveness. You should have no trouble locking up your brakes on a hard stop.

Check the shoe adjustment. 4 on the front and 2 in the rear.

Also, the hoses break down internally, and should be replaced from time to time..

Tom Lange
MGT Repair
t lange

Thanks for the latest replies.
CPW. My existing shoes came from a well known supplier. Nevertheless, I do think they are too hard.
Tom. All the cylinders are working. I will check the hoses.
I will experiment with softer shoes and report back. Lionel TD3490.
L.F. Thorne

From my experience I fitted a full set of brake shoes form the usual supplier and blead the system 3 times. Went for a drive and found it almost impossible to stop. The brake's were almost none existence. Blead the system again and all my wheel cylinders have been rebuilt by White's and limned. Also the master cylinder. After several very scary trips round the local neighborhood. Took each wheel off and examined the pads.
Contact was about 2%
The fix is to contact cement a strip 400 grit emery cloth to the inside of the drums and spin the wheel by hand and apply the brakes repeatedly - till the contact surface has become adequate. It is a chore but the brakes will work very well after you have gone through this procedure. If you have lots of cash you can probably have some one do it for you I did not.
Shoes from the store do not follow the shape of the drum and as you note are hard.
It did not used to be this way.
When replaced my brake shoes the last time 1980 they worked right out of the box. I don't think they came from China or India.
Rod Jones

Shoes arced to the drum resolves that issue.

I used JLG Relining to do mine to my drum diameter, stops on 2 dimes now.

Peter
P G Gilvarry

Here in Vancouver British Columbia we have tried with excellent success soft brake re-linings with the re-lined shoes arced to the drums by the re-line shop.
The soft linings are the type used on forklifts in industrial warehouses. The combination of soft linings and arcing seems to work very well...that’s our experience. Nike time, just do it.
gl rombough

Lionel, if you check the hoses, don't forget the third hose near the rear axle.
Huib Bruijstens

This thread was discussed between 18/05/2021 and 22/05/2021

MG TD TF 1500 index

This thread is from the archive. The Live MG TD TF 1500 BBS is active now.