14 replies to this topic

[minifan2005]

my mate has bought some 10" wheels for his 12" wheel mini. they dont fit on the front but they do the rear. from 12" to 10" disc conversion is too expensive on his tight budget so can he go disc to drums on the front. any one know how much it would cost and how hard would it be
any info would be grately recieved
andrew

[Bluemini]

Dont do it...

Mini brakes are C**p at the best of times, and you want to down-grade to drums? Crazy fool...

[minifan2005]

are their any alternatives to selling the wheels because he dont want to sell dem

andrew

[soopercooper]

There is no point in sacraficing the front brakes just to get a set of rims on. The braking power of the car will be severely affected. When I was a lot younger, my mate bought a mini with drums on the front - took only 3 weeks before it found a lampost.

Sell the wheels and get some that are the right size!

[soopercooper]

There is no point in sacraficing the front brakes just to get a set of rims on. The braking power of the car will be severely affected. When I was a lot younger, my mate bought a mini with drums on the front - took only 3 weeks before it found a lampost.

Sell the wheels and get some that are the right size!

[Purple Tom]

how tight a budget is he on?

If he scours the net for a while, and the local free ad's paper he may well find a cheap set of Cooper S 7.5" disc assemblies, in need of a recon. More than likely they will need a good clean, new caliper pistons and seals, new cv gaiters, new discs and pads, but even with that you could still easily keep it below the £200 mark. A guy in the ad-mag in Notts had a pair for sale a while back for £100, so they do spring up every now and then. eBay is a great place to look too. Once/if he gets these, then pretty much any 10" wheel will go over them, apart from Mamba's and a couple of other unusual ones. If he has those wheels then I believe its drums or 7" discs, which are on a par with the original single leading shoe drums fitted to early 60's Minis.

[Guess-Works.com]

As you already have disks, all you need is calipers, disks, pads and driveflange...

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...4516186525&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.co.u...4516497422&rd=1

[siggy]

Mambas will fit over 7.5 Discs, the only ones they will not fit are the Alloy 4 pots and 7.8 discs

Siggy

[minifan2005]

thanx for the links GuessWorks and all other info.
cheers everyone
andrew

[Brawlyrox]

have a look at putting some fiesta calipers on, if ur good with machining... theres a few articles on it around.

[Jordie]

Also what Brawlyrox was supposed to say was;

We do not recormend machining any brakes or calipers as modifications can lead to extreme failure.

Also TMF take no responsibility for any advice given about modification to brakes, calipers and machining. It is done at YOUR own risk and brakes are definatly not worth skimping on, just to fit 10" wheels.

[Madmax]

spot on jordie, we need a disclaimer

[Pavel]

Umm actually Fiesta calipers do not require any machining of that kind that might be dangerous!

They are a VERY good mod if you want to try it, all you have to do is grind a tiny bit off the hub from what I remember (no caliper grinding etc.). You'll also need Metro Vented Drive Flanges and a set of hoses made up!

By the way if your friend's car is a pretty standard mini (998 engine?) then he can very well fit drums! A well maintained set of drums (replace shoes, bleed, adjust) etc. are quite effective brakes to be honest, and since he's going down to 10" wheels, the rotating and unsprung mass is greatly reduced, thereby making the brakes' job even easier!

I've driven a mini with a 1.3 engine with 10" 165 rubber with drums and could still lock the wheels at around 20-30mph very easily...

They're just not very good when you use them a lot often (i.e. winding mountain road) but for general use I don't see why you can't!

[Jordie]

i run drums at the moment with 10s and i am changing to 12's and 8.4 setup due to drums been not as effective in this day and age.

They need regular adjustement etc, poorer in rain and with the traffic, drivers and weather these days, i would definatly keep discs over drums.

[minifan2005]

cheers pavel and everyone else. :grin:
im not sure what hes doin but i fink hes gona wait and c what he can get from the mini fair 2005 at da end of da month.
once again thanx
andrew