Mk3 2.0 Brake upgrade

[greensleaves 0]

Hello,

I've not posted in a while what with house move, renovation and children, hence no work being done on the Cortina. Slowly though I'm trying to get my hand back in and one of the things i've been thinking about for a long time is a Brake system upgrage.

What i'd like are discs all round with possibly an upgrade to the master cylinder as well and maybe along with that a servo will naturally be changed too? But with discs on the rear I wonder if there are any problems hooking up the handbrake cable?

If anyone has any experience changing their brakes in this way id appreciate any help and advice.

I like the look of some of the kits on Burtonpower but none of them mention the handbrake issue or whether they're compatible with the original Master Cylinder (which by the way is my THIRD one!).

Thank you!

[sheffieldcortinacentre 759]

It's a pretty straightforward job.

 

Use the master cyl from an 80s land rover 110, a Sierra handbrake cable (disc brake verson fit the cortina yoke),pair of Sierra/Granada (solid disc) calipers Inc mounts, pair of Sierra front solid discs or mk3-4 escort front solid discs.

Lastly you need to buy a pair of caliper mounts for an escort or Capri atlas axle.

 

Is all a bolt in conversion.

 

Just done one last week,get in touch if you've any probs.

Edited June 17, 2018 by sheffieldcortinacentre

[RichardJ 59]

My conversion to disc was pretty much as Craig described.

 

Was an easy job, and the only "tricky" bits I can remember were:

1) Fitting the Cortina yoke (the boomerang bit that the handbrake connects to) to the Sierra cable. It took a bit of fiddling to get the sierra cable through it. Everything else just bolted straight on and lined up perfectly.

2) I'd lost the plastic handbrake guides that stop the cable rubbing on the brackets under the car, so had to source new ones.

 

Also depending on the shape of your rear brake mounting brackets you may find that you need to remove the calipers from the brackets to fully bleed them. When fitted, mine were mounted in such a way that the bleed nipple was slightly lower than the top of the slave cylinder, so they trapped a very small amount of air in them if bled on the car. Not enough to stop the brakes working, but it made the pedal slightly spongy.

[mouse 6]

Hi.

There's nothing wrong with drums on the back

Why complicate life??

 

Regards Mouse..

[John Mack 338]

Hi.

There's nothing wrong with drums on the back

Why complicate life??

 

Regards Mouse..

I understand why some folks do it, I have drums though...….and the handbrake works well!

[Danish 294]

Why complicate life??

My #1 reason... Rear discs look good.

 

Re. Craig's post - I did all of that except I took the horseshoe from an old Cortina hand brake cable, had it re-plated and fitted it to a new Sierra cable to make a new hybrid one.

[sheffieldcortinacentre 759]

Mine are because I've more umph in one & the other is better stopping/fade resistance.

[Danish 294]

Mine are because I've more umph in one & the other is better stopping/fade resistance.

Mine did stop OK on the 9" drums though I think the discs give a more progressive braking when you're stamping on them.

 

Fade resistance isn't something I'd really thought about, but now we're towing the pod it's a good point.

[greensleaves 0]

<p>

My #1 reason... Rear discs look good.<br />

<br />

Re. Craig's post - I did all of that except I took the horseshoe from an old Cortina hand brake cable, had it re-plated and fitted it to a new Sierra cable to make a new hybrid one.</p>

 

Which part are you talking about when you say the horseshoe?

Edited June 19, 2018 by greensleaves

[greensleaves 0]

Oh the quote didnt work sorry

[Danish 294]

Which part are you talking about when you say the horseshoe?

 

On the handbrake cable there is a captive half-circle plate which attaches to the hand brake and allows the cable to bend round gently.

 

On this page you can see it in the top-left of the photo:

http://www.scotts-classiccarspares.co.uk/ford-cortina-mk3-70-76--new-floor-mounted-handbrake-cable--bc752-463-p.asp

[greensleaves 0]

Ah yes I know what you mean. Both you and Richard talk about tricky bits getting the Sierra cable to fit that crescent moon bracket. Is it because the cable is thicker or is there something else going on?

[Danish 294]

No it's just a different shape between 'tina and Sierra. Easy to swap over.

[RichardJ 59]

Yeah like Danish said - The Sierra yoke (boomerang? crescent moon? horseshoe?) bit doesn't fit the Cortina handbrake so you need to use the old one from the original Cortina cable and put it on the Sierra cable.

 

The cable is the same thickness on both cars, so the Sierra handbrake fits it just fine, it's just a bit fiddly to open up the moon/horsehoe thing to get the Cortina cable out and the Sierra cable in.

I'm probably making it sound a lot trickier to swap over than it actually is, as it's really not that bad.

 

The difficulty I had was that on mine I had to first detach the metal clevis bit (the bit that actually connects to the handbrake lever via a pin) from the rest of the moon/horsehoe thing first before I could swap the cables, but the cables just clipped straight in and out once that was done.

I then obviously had to reattach the clevis bit afterwards.

[John Mack 338]

The Sierra yoke (boomerang? crescent moon? horseshoe?)

It's called a compensator …………..showing my age here!