Hydraulic front brake

The late Malcolm Saggers did such a conversion, as my ex factory prototype Matchless twin had a hydraulic front bake that Malcolm built. The first owner sold it after i had bought it, and replaced it with an AMC front hub. I have pictures, but the web site will not let me down load them. Malcolm used the brake cylinders from an earlier mini, but Malcolm passed away many years ago. I have tried to attach the pictures but the web site does not allow me to do so. 

Friend of mine did similar conversion using brake plate from morris 1000, idea was to improve brake from single to twin leading shoe without spending much money. Not difficult to do if you have access to a lathe to remove outer part of backplate and make up spacers, like one in above pic was for norton hub.

 This was many years back when Minor parts were almost free, main cost was Jap master cylinder and custom hose. Last year I mentioned it to him and asked how good it was, unfortunately his evaluation was don't bother it was not much better than original.

If you really want to stop get a Commando disk wheel and fork leg and fit larger disk than standard and modern caliper, mine is from Hinkley Triumph. If you have access to lathe and milling machine you can turn down original Norton disk and use it s a centre to mount large rotor on buttons.

Regards Martin

These are the pictures of the brake conversion that Anthony Curzon was trying to post.

Dear Niall,

Why not have a go, parts are still available. Just be careful as car parts are handed, if you want brake on right you need offside bits otherwise you will end up with twin trailing rather than leading shoe. Also watch out for size, early morris 1000 had 7 inch front brakes, later had 8 inch ones, same shoes as Conical hub brakes on Trident and OIF BSA . Choose a master cylinder for single front disc as it will be smaller piston diameter.

Good luck

Martin

What's the purpose of the two steel straps between each shoe and the drum?

Hi David,

Can I guess that they are there to keep the brake shoes in the correct place? Car brake plates often had 'fully floating' brake shoes,  which might have caused brake drag issues on the bike?

Just a guess anyway. 

George.