EBC Rear brake drums

[John Gervais]

I'm wondering if anyone is using or has tried EBC brand rear brake drums. 

Every Autumn I swap my SuperMiniFins for a pair of cast iron Unipart drums when I mount the winter tires.  Not that it goes out in the salt, but nevermind that...  Every year I also battle trying to adjust the out-of-round iron drums, and nobody here 'turns' drums anymore. 

So I'm looking at EBC, as a better quality rear drum.  I like their products.  They manufacture rear drums both with (p/n DM016) and without (p/n DM019) the 1" built-in spacer, and they look pretty good on the website. 

(I also like the 8.4" USR182 slotted rotors, and the GD182 dimpled & slotted rotors, but having just installed new rotors 2 years ago, mine have about 40 years left on them - unless I start driving it again...)

Thoughts?

[jeff10049]

I have not used their drums, but I have used EBC brake parts a lot and always been very good stuff.

Jeff

[John Gervais]

Thanks, I'm on my second set of greenstuff pads and really like them, so even though I can't afford them, I'm really tempted to order a set of rear drums in the hope that they're as round as they claim.

[MiniDave]

I can't find any source for these in the US, who carries them over here?

[John Gervais]

I don't know if they're available through normal EBC vendors.  In my search yesterday, I found that Demon Tweeks has them on sale, so 'only' £27.20 each, instead of the normal £32.00 each. 

Think I'll go for it...



http://www.demon-tweeks.co.uk/performance/brake-discs/car/austin/mini/1963/cooper-s/ebc-brakes-oe-replacement-rear-drum-single-rear-178mm

[MiniDave]

That was pretty funny, that is the flattest brake drum I've ever seen!  ;D

[John Gervais]

 :-\

[John Gervais]

This will soon be interesting - the drums were ordered on February 25th and were dispatched today by UPS Standard Export service.

My order was immediately followed by an E-mail stating that shipping charges may not be as stated on the order confirmation due to increased charges within the shipping industry and that another E-mail may follow with a revised shipping quote.  This never arrived, so
shipping charges totalled £11.99, making my order total a mere £68.80.

It'll be nice to see if the EBC rear drums are 'round' and not slightly off as the Unipart ones have been.

[MiniDave]

Get back in the shop and get that Mini back on the road!

[John Gervais]

Easier said than done, Dave -

Part of the problem is the size of the garage - 15 sq. meters, with shelves, table, spare engine/gearbox, tools and collected 'stuff'.  When I first bought the garage, I was 10 years younger and somehow didn't have all the extra stuff.  The mini and I barely fit.  I was in there on Sunday, and although I'm fairly organised with respect to where the tools are, I could not find my spare sets of ball joints nor the small cup-type separator which I use on the steering rack rod ends.  I must have looked for over 1½ hours - found the ball joints and extra shims, never the separator.  I should be pulling the upper arms to finally rebuild them, have had the rebuild kits since 2007 and have recently purchased a set of C-STR687 cones, but somehow can't imagine trying to manoeuvre between the wall and the car - and yet I did just that in 2006 when I installed the cones that are in there.  Only difference is that I'm older, stiffer and the garage has shrunken.

I did manage to build a 'loft' in between the garage door and the ceiling (using the wooden shelves in the 'bicycle' picture), so the extra front panel, sills, doorstep, A-panels, radiator, LCB and other bits are out of the way.  Of course, now there's a welder, stack of ammo boxes with ignition bits, winter (or summer - depending) wheels/tires, spools of striped wire, gasket sets hanging on the walls, helicoil sets hanging on the walls, etc... 

Wish I had a better picture.  Hyacinth and I were actually discussing only this evening buying a small farm and moving out of the city.  Would be better for me, in that I could probably have an easier time finding employment, and would give a bit o'space to the mini.  Might also mean that I would need a quad or a tractor...

[MiniDave]

Yeah, seems over there in Yurrup all they do in their garage is park cars!  ;D

Great looking Mini tho!

[John Gervais]

Thanks! 

Yeah, seems over there in Yurrup all they do in their garage is park cars!  ;D

Great looking Mini tho!

(Sad but true, Fantastic accent!)

I re-shimmed the lower ball joints on Sunday - it took (no kidding) around 6 hours because of all the crouching, folding, bending and threading my body between the car and the walls.  It's tight in there, and I've a nasty bruise on my shoulder from wedging myself in there. 

It's also funny how getting older is affecting this scene - I finally wedged myself in to tackle the RH side lower joint - one foot under the rear exhaust silencer, the other beside the rear wheel, twisted torso and face too close to the joint to focus on it.  Roll over onto my back, rock back and forth a small amount and reach for the door handle with the right hand and brace the wall with the left for support, work my way out and get my garage glasses (RayBan Wayfarer sunglasses frame with progressive lenses installed), wedge back in and land in a 'thump' beside the car and worm in from there.

T'was brutal...  And next, the upper joints, upper arms and cones - who knows where I'll put the bonnet for this one.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

Off topic - Can you let me know how you mounted the seats? I have a set of Evo 8 Recaro's dying to go into my mini.

[John Gervais]

Sure - I used Sparco's universal seat bases (a 2-piece construction, upper & lower halves that make a rectangular box) and the Sparco universal sliders which fit between the bases and the seats, mounted about 1½ inches behind the crossmember.  The inner rail is actually slightly on the side of the tunnel, but the 2-piece seat base construction allowed me to 'dogleg' the inner mount to allow for a vertical section to the top-half and the slider, then using a bit of bar-stock, shimmed the outer seat base rail to allow a level fit.  I added a pair of horizontal straps for side-to-side stiffening.

It was actually a bit fiddly, and I've got to admit that while the Sparco R-100 seats are really comfortable, they're heavy (26.9lbs + mounting hardware). 

Since I installed the roll cage, I can't recline them; Hyacinth would like to able to recline/relax, which is why I bought them, but in retrospect, I should have just bought a set of lightweight FIA fixed buckets rather than the sport recliners.

[LilDrunkenSmurf]

So they're fixed directly to to the floor panel, rather than using the stock seat mounts?

[John Gervais]

Yes, some drilling required.

This is the base that I used:

http://www.sparcousa.com/product/base-adapter-custom

I only used the 'hoop' sections, as the long box sections didn't really fit.  So, I installed the hoops front-to-rear, and added cross-braces to maintain 'square'.  I'll probably re-visit this though, as I'm not really 100% happy with the cross-braces.  I might just cut the box-sections that came in the kit and use them as the cross-braces.

And the slider:

http://www.sparcousa.com/product/track-set

[John Gervais]

Wow, heavier than I thought!

[MiniDave]

Did you order 20 of them? or maybe an extra transmission or something?

[John Gervais]

The drums arrived today, as planned, only 2 of them in the box.  On first inspection, they look nice - just hope they're not egg-shaped like the Unipart ones have been.

[tmsmini]

They do look nice. Too bad we do not seem to have access in the US of A.

[MiniDave]

Yeah those look way better than the one I have.....

[John Gervais]

I was rather impressed also, but the reality is that they'll probably only see a lick of paint before I mount the Super Minifins again for the summer season.  My 2-year old winter tires still have the 'nubbies' and maybe 50 miles on them.