I’m working on my Morris Minor woody. The previous owner narrowed an S-10 rear end for it and added these disc brakes. Apparently, they added aftermarket housing ends and custom axles to facilitate the new brakes. I think the brakes are Ford but I’m not a big rear disc brake guy so IDK. They are 11” rotors. Here’s the issue: these brakes require minimum 15” wheels. The front wheels are 14”. I’m buying new tires and I would like to put 14s on the back as well. The 15s look too big on such a small car. It’s a matter of making the wheel size, tire size and wheel openings all play together to get the cohesive look I’m going for. I’m open to maybe somebody’s kit with a smaller rotor and caliper or even going to drums. I will probably have to pull it all apart and measure the housing ends but I thought that just maybe someone here recognizes the parts and can get me started.
The caliper mounts and calipers sorta look like 9 inch Ford rear Granada parts. I can't tell from the pics if they are front or rear calipers. They interchange on the mounting bracket, so could be either with the same mount to the housing.
They look like Ford Granada to me, too. IIRC, nothing else fits those axle ends, they are unique to disk brake Granada and Lincoln Versailles. The good news is that Granadas came with 14" wheels even with disk brakes.
if the calipers have a parking brake lever, they are indeed rear brakes...and the front calipers have a hub cast into them, so the rotors must be rear also. Big lincolns, with a 5x5 bolt pattern, used a bigger version of the brakes than the smaller Versaille/Granada. Granada rotors are 10.7" diameter, so they should fit under disk brake style 14" wheels, eh? did you try some 14" wheels and they didn't fit?
Ugh, you mean someone makes axle ends to adapt Granada brakes to other rear ends? I was hoping that they just put regular old racer 9” ends on there. If they used 14” wheels on Granadas they must have used smaller calipers. There’s just barely one fingertip distance between the wheel and the caliper. I’ll take it apart and check some dimensions. Thanks for all the info!!
one fingertip is all you need, isn't it? how much wheel flex do you expect? (or is that with 15" wheel?)
Yes, the 14s didn’t fit. I was surprised. I have some options up to and including narrowing one of the 8” Ford rear ends that I have.
Tore it apart and took the dial calipeters to everything. The axle housing ends are big Ford early style with 1/2” bolts. The axle to housing offset is 2.415” compared to 2.5 which is common. The drum index stub is 3.060” (??) and the bolt pattern is 5 on 4 3/4”. The axles have no C-clip (thankfully), held in by the typical Ford retainer or caliper bracket in this case.
Being common Ford dimensions (mostly), I dug out a complete set of 9” brakes that I had lying around and they look like they will work except that they are for the Torino style housing with the smaller pattern and 3/8” bolts. I guess I can redrill them to the needed pattern. I’ll need to drill the lug pattern too. I found the correct backing plates, loaded with new hardware for $299 on the interweb. I can get my buddy at the local machine shop to cut the axles to the common 2.770 drum index ID. The other $300 question; do I cut off the caliper brackets with the Sawzall or plasma cutter, or do I have him press it apart and install new bearings. The current ones are new with maybe 25 miles on them. I just had some done for my Ranchero and it was just under $300 out the door. I’m leaning heavily towards the Sawzall. I have zero use for the brackets and calipers and I doubt they will sell at the swap meet.
The rotors were 11”. I think it was the “Big Car” stuff, it just barely fit into the 15” wheels - about 5/16 - 3/8” clearance. Not sure why anyone would put such big brakes on a little 2000lb car with little 185 tires.
that explains it. Also the big car stuff was usually free, and the smaller granada stuff cost money (in the 1990s).
By the dates on the receipts I got with the car it was started in 1999 or thereabouts. About 70 percent complete, it got pushed to the back of the previous owners shop and languished there for about ten years. I bought it and had it shipped out to California. I derusted and painted the inside and underneath. I went through the chassis, built new headers and exhaust system, wired it and got it running and driving. I replaced the doors and stripped off the old primer. It went to a few local cruise nights in bare metal. The little 215 Buick runs fine but with such small tires and no overdrive it buzzes a bit at highway speeds. I’m hoping to improve that with a slightly taller tire. Once I get a wheel and tire combo that I like, I’ll change the gears to get the highway rpm to where it’s moderate and comfortable. I set about painting it a dark green but my wife didn’t like the color so I stripped it again and reprimed it. Once again it was relegated to the back of the shop until we found a color we agreed on. Then health problems intervened along with caregiver duties for my Mom. I’m only just now getting back to the paint. We finally agree on the color. The rear fenders will be ready for installation soon so I figured that I would address the wheel/brake issue before I install them. That’s the backstory up to today…..
Sawzall to the rescue….. more weight to add to my scrap metal pile. The axles and bearings survived unscathed. I dropped the axles off to have the drum index stub turned down to the standard Ford 2.77” The new backing plates arrived and fit fine so far. Now I can use whatever wheels I choose.
Yes. I’m bought some from Quick Performance. They should arrive about the time the axles are done. Had kidney stone surgery today and they left a stent in, not sure if I’ll be able to get much done until I heal up some. Right now I would say no but I’ll just have to wait and see.
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