Upgrading to 1.8 brakes
Being a '91 car, I've been struggling with the little 1.6 brakes for too long. They're acceptable on the road (assuming you're not going too crazy), but combined with turbo power they soon start spoiling the fun at track days. So, I've upgraded to the larger brakes found on the later 1.8 cars.
To do the conversion, you need 1.8 discs, pads, and caliper carriers. The latter came from a breaker (£70 for front and rears, note that you need the pad fitting clips for the rear), the rest new from MX5Parts again. It's very straightforward work, you remove the calipers, discs and carriers, then match up the carriers with the 1.8 ones. Use some threadlock when fitting them, tightening the 2 bolts to around 48nm.
The brake backplates then need to be modified to keep them clear of the larger discs. The fronts are easy (the edges are easily bent outwards using pliers), but the rears are much more awkward and ideally you want to cut off the edges with tin snips. I don't have these, so tried to do it with pliers and it looked dreadful... and they still didn't clear the disc! Fed up, I chopped them off altogether, as you can see in the photo:
This may prove to be unwise (the wheelbearing is relatively unprotected, and if the CV splits the disc could see some grease), but they're expensive to buy and you need to remove the hub to fit them. I'll risk it. Here's the front, with 'adjusted' backplate intact:
Once that's done, fit the new discs and refit the calipers with the new pads (which you'll notice have a much greater surface area). And that's it!
I've gone for EBC Yellowstuff pads again, but since then I've heard good things about the pads made by Roddisons garage in Sheffield, which cost much the same (shame they don't appear to have a website). You can reach Rodder's via the MX5Nutz forum though.
I finally got the new brake lines fitted and the system bled. I couldn't get the Eezibleed to work, even when I converted the old cap, it just wouldn't seal. I had to recruit Mrs B once more for some manual bleeding... it's good to share hobbies, isn't it?
To do the conversion, you need 1.8 discs, pads, and caliper carriers. The latter came from a breaker (£70 for front and rears, note that you need the pad fitting clips for the rear), the rest new from MX5Parts again. It's very straightforward work, you remove the calipers, discs and carriers, then match up the carriers with the 1.8 ones. Use some threadlock when fitting them, tightening the 2 bolts to around 48nm.
The brake backplates then need to be modified to keep them clear of the larger discs. The fronts are easy (the edges are easily bent outwards using pliers), but the rears are much more awkward and ideally you want to cut off the edges with tin snips. I don't have these, so tried to do it with pliers and it looked dreadful... and they still didn't clear the disc! Fed up, I chopped them off altogether, as you can see in the photo:
I've gone for EBC Yellowstuff pads again, but since then I've heard good things about the pads made by Roddisons garage in Sheffield, which cost much the same (shame they don't appear to have a website). You can reach Rodder's via the MX5Nutz forum though.
I finally got the new brake lines fitted and the system bled. I couldn't get the Eezibleed to work, even when I converted the old cap, it just wouldn't seal. I had to recruit Mrs B once more for some manual bleeding... it's good to share hobbies, isn't it?
