As I am between jobs on the engine (waiting for funds for the cam amongst other things) I built up the rear brakes. When installing the rear cylinders I found that one of my backplates had the hole for the cylinder locating lug on the wrong side (or was it the cylinder that was wrong??). Out came the drill and a new one on the correct side suddenly appeared. Gaskets went on and then I had the fun job of getting the retaining clips on. I have NEVER been able to do this whilst the backplate was on the car (never had the special tool). However, on the bench it was a cinch. I was able to lever the ends over the cylinder before tapping it down using a socket to get the lugs into the ring. I then put in the adjusters & tappets with plenty of Copperslip. In went the shoes, the springs and the handbrake levers. I tried getting the hubs on, but because I had bought cheap bearings, when torqued up to the correct setting, the hubs would not turn at all. My bad. New ones on order from Mini Spares. I HATE having to re-do jobs.
To keep me busy I dug out the cylinder head and gave it a once over with my Father-in-law Steve's evil degreaser. This made it a fair bit cleaner. I then dried it and gave it its first coat of paint to match the block. Hopefully I will be able to start lapping in the valves soon.
Backplate with locating lug on wrong side. Drill sorted this.
Lovely new brakes with lots of new parts!
Dirty head, ready for a clean.
