2011, Brakes and Wheels

So its 2011.  There is the new project parked in the garage and my original "everyday" TR7 is parked outside under a nice cover. Not ideal but its only a temporary arrangement isn't it ?
I wasn't quite ready to really start work on the project but had started to strip stuff off and get rid of some of the scrap items like the ruined carpets etc.

In the meantime I regarded the "everyday" car as a kind of test bed for stuff I planned to use on the new one and one of the first things that came along was a set of 4 pot brakes.  They were advertised on Ebay starting at £50 but with no pictures and a vague description..  When I contacted the bloke I found he was not very helpful but said he had taken them off a TR7 rally car and they were complete and ready to bolt straight on.  What to do?
I thought £50 was worth a gamble,  so I placed a bid and was amazed to find out a couple of days later they were mine!
Turns out it was the small Rimmers upgrade kit using Princess 4 pot callipers and vented discs of 244mm diameter and 20mm thick. It would have cost at least £250 to buy so that was a good deal and they went onto the car.

Princess 4-pots fitted

 

The handbrake on my everyday TR7 had always been poor so I decided it was worth having it apart to sort out.   The rear brakes have a self-adjuster mechanism but it hardly ever works properly and that was also going to mess up the handbrake operation.  I had a new kit to replace all the adjuster mechanism in stock (another Ebay purchase) so this was the time to use it.

Standard wheels on a TR7 are 13" diameter and many TR7 brake upgrades need bigger wheels to fit them inside, so when a new set of 14" x 6" Minilite style turned up at a very good price they went into stock as well.  The wheels needed taper fitting nuts so I had to get some of those to match.

New "Minilite" style wheels fitted

 Replacement wheels are a bit of a concern on TR7's.  The standard wheels are hub-centric meaning that they are a close fit on the boss in the centre of the hub to give them their accurate location.  The wheelnuts do not locate the wheels they just hold them on the hub.
Most replacement wheels are located by the studs and can sometimes cause vibration problems if the wheels are not centred accurately.  Time would tell if mine were OK..