Systems of a Tiger 1965 Sunbeam Tiger • Feb 24, 2008
When restoring a car, it makes it a lot easier to think of the vehicle as a whole, but as a collection of systems. Rather than worry about restoring an entire car, we focused our attention on first the braking system, then the fuel system, then the cooling system and so on.
With Girling discs up front and drum brakes in the rear, the brake system on a Tiger is fairly straightforward. However, there are a few things that make a Tiger’s braking system a bit more complicated than most British cars. First, rotors are pretty much unavailable (or at least quite expensive) at this point. Factory spec for rotor thickness is .460, so we had specific measurement in mind when we searched for used rotors. After we took a micrometer to a few, Andres Automotive put up with our request to keep cutting them until we had some good ones.
The Tiger also uses a Girling brake booster to lessen pedal effort, but we decided to make some changes for a few reasons. For one, these boosters are a bit finicky (the factory actually changed them during production because of problems). Another factor is that the stock brake booster operates off of engine vacuum, something a heavily modified small block Ford does not have too much of. Plus, we didn’t have a dual braking system.
All cars sold in America after 1967 were required to have dual braking systems. An important safety feature, a dual braking system allows the front brakes to operate independently of the rear brakes. We decided to go to a more modern dual master cylinder that woudn’t require the use of the stock booster.
Still one more factor that affected our decision to modify our brakes was cost. A brake booster rebuild would set us back a few hundred dollars, while a new Tiger master cylinder would set us back the same amount.
After driving Bill Martin of Rootes Group Depot’s Tiger, we opted for a 1980 Subaru Master cylinder. This master cylinder cost us about $160 from Red Line BMW parts and fit very well. It clears everything under the hood and only requires that you slightly machine down the original spacer that goes behind the Tiger master cylinder so it will fit the Subaru master cylinder. Just about any auto parts store can get one, but we like dealing with Rennie at Red Line.
While we may come back and readdress brake performance in the sorting phase of this project, the only other modifications we made to the braking system were the installation of KFP Magnum pads up front and KFP re-lined brake shoes in the rear.
We also used a Classic Tube stainless steel brake line kit for the Tiger. This kit fit wonderfully and included everything we needed. Where the stock brake booster was mounted we had to add a junction to connect the line into the booster to the line that came out of the booster. We ended up making one new line, as we now had a dual braking system. Fortunately, Classic Tube sent us some extra stuff to make this line. We also added braided steel brake lines to the car.
All in all, we were pleased with how easy and inexpensive these modifications were and how pleasant pre-bent brake lines made this stage of the restoration. Available for most cars, or custom-made from your originals if they don’t have patterns, these brake line kits run less than $200 from Classic Tube (from classic tube web site). We can honestly say that we will never restore another car without using their kits.
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Comments
- stu67tiger wrote: Mar 3, 2008 8:57 p.m.
- How did the Subaru master cylinder work out? What about pedal effort and travel? How did you implement the push rod to the pedal? I'm thinking of doing the brakes and booster on my Tiger soon, but now you've got me thinking. Stu
- Tim Suddard wrote: Mar 4, 2008 10:48 p.m.
- I haven't driven the car, but have driven another one (Bill at the Rootes Group Depot's car) with the same setup and was very pleased. The pedal effort and travel are very reasonable. Hard to quantify, but like a normal non-power brake car. Same for pedal travel. I found it enough in a normal range that I decided to do the swap. The Tiger push-rod fits fine, after you grind the edges slightly, where it goes into the master cylinder. Biggest problem is things get real tight around the master cylinder in the engine compartment. As if there is any room anywhere else in a Tiger engine compartment! Hope this helps.
- docivo wrote: Mar 11, 2008 12:54 a.m.
- How about a Subaru part number , or the bore size, or at least what model vehicle this cylinder was from….Please ???? So far I have found 3 that appear the same, but all have different numbers ! Thanks in advance for the help .
- 65_tiger wrote: Mar 20, 2008 9:45 p.m.
- Hi, I have the same question as “docivo” above and what website can get we the MC??? Thanks, I'm a 2 '65 Tiger owner and one needs a restore soon!
- Tim Suddard wrote: Mar 27, 2008 9:11 a.m.
- Sorry guys, It is a 1980 Subaru 1600 master cylinder with a 13/16” bore. Rennie Bryant of Red Line BMW 954 783 7003 sold it for me for less than $200. He will gladly order one for you and knows the part number. I believe you can get it from any parts store though.
