Bolt-on Hillman brake upgrades? Ford/Girling calipers??

[nomad]

Hi folks,

I've been toying with the idea of modernising and upgrading the front brakes on the Hunter rather than trying to get them "as good as new" (ie not very )
Partly as performance has never been up to modern standards and partly as both my usual motor factors are now telling me they can't get pads for my standard setup
Ebay has them, but I'm very tempted to use this as a good reason to update the brakes.
£150 kits are out (and not available), any ideas for using cheap scrapyard or unpopular (NOS Ebay?) parts welcome.

Ideas so far :
keep existing discs, bolt-on newer calipers ?
fit newer disks & calipers ?

Questions :
Are there any bolt-on (readily available & cheap ) options?
Have I missed anything obvious?
Bolt-on would be good, could get the hubs machined to take Sierra disks if needed (see below), would prefer not to do anything to the struts, no idea where to get caliper spaces made up (ideas or prices?)

"Hunters use stock Girling calipers, just like Fords. So, any Capri/Escort/etc upgrade caliper will bolt on."
www.rodsnsods.co.uk/forum/tech-discussion/hilman-hunter-v8-braking-issues-47010

A very neat job (scroll down to post #58), machining the hub down to take a Sierra disk, then making brackets to hold the new calipers
www.turbosport.co.uk/showthread.php?t=159937&page=2

The RR guide to the 4 (!) types of M16 calipers
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/119686/help-identifying-calipers-capri-2


An interesting photo strip & rebuild page
www.buckeyetriumphs.org/technical/Brakes/Front/Front.htm

Ideas, suggestions, or the loan of a pair of modern Girling calipers to size up and try out would all be welcome!

Cheers

[andygb]

just had my fastback rapier rally car calipers reconditioned (£98 each + vat ouch ! )
used ebc discs and greenstuff pads, not had chance to try them yet

ford m16 calipers wont direct fit but I think mgb will and they use the same pad

you could just try some pads for a start carefull not to get the cheaper ultimax pad

got part numbers if you want them.

[nomad]

Aug 19, 2013 12:04:36 GMT andygb said:

ford m16 calipers wont direct fit but I think mgb will and they use the same pad

Thanks for the info - I tried some M16 calipers on my spare suspension units and they're not a 100% straight swap but are *very* close :
they bolt up fine using existing mounting holes & even use the original bolts!
The car has imperial hoses but M16's have metric fitings so I'll be fitting new (metric) flexi-hoses and using an imperial/metric adaptor to mate them up to the existing hardlines on the car There are neater ways to do it but there's a reason I'm going this route this time
Standard Hunter disks are 240mm, I would prefer to use the new calipers with 245mm/250mm, it all goes together ok but the outside of the pad rides just outside the edge of the disk (I would be concerned but this seems to be the modern way brakes work - our 90's Citroens all have pades which ride just outside the disk )
Disk inset/offset is fine (the disk maybe about 2mm offcenter in the caliper but it's not an issue)
So it looks like M16's are easy to fit and the issues are simple to work around

Even better newz is that Rally design are doing brand new M16's for £40 each  (expect to pay £130 for a pair + pads + vat + postage )
www.rallydesign.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=10537

I'll put an update on my build thread soon...

cheers

[bortaf]

If M16 calipers fit you can use cortina P100 or Mk2 granada 2.3 M16b calipers as they take a bigger pad or if you get 2.8i granny ones they are wider to take a vented disc if one is available for your application ?
Not a huge improvement but that's the route i allways go on cortinas

[nomad]

Thanks everyone

In the end I went for new M16's when I found them for £40 each.
More than I was planning to spend but does avoid any problems with below-par performance from used calipers

Info added to the build thread
retrorides.proboards.com/thread/88892/1972-hillman-hunter-estate-lives?page=8#scrollTo=1826842

cheers,

[kevfromwales]

erm, this might be a bit late, but I remember reading in custom car years ago about a chap in malta who'd put an entire capri front end under a hunter, gave him rack and pinion and the option of big brakes too

might be worth a look?

[nomad]

Cheers Kev

Aug 20, 2013 11:31:22 GMT kevfromwales said:

erm, this might be a bit late, but I remember reading in custom car years ago about a chap in malta who'd put an entire capri front end under a hunter, gave him rack and pinion and the option of big brakes too

might be worth a look?

Doh!

Yep, sounds intreresting (especially rack & pinion as that's already on the to-do list) but would have been even more interesting to know before I fitted new Hillman struts, balljoints, brakes, bushes...

Have heard Avenger rack & column is a near bolt-in upgrade, wonder if Carpi rack & column would do or if it needs Capri x-member, TCA's struts, rack, column...
Did get told at the Gathering that Escort struts can be fitted which makes me even more convinced this is a Ford design rebadged by Hillman!


If anyone hears of Capri rack & column ( or an Isuzu 1.7 TD motor) being thrown out can you let me know

Many thanks!

[retrowrongun]

Why not use austin princess calipers ? Like most escorts have

Just another option to think about

## edit ## just spotted you've got m16 calipers need to read full thread in future apologies !!