WTB: LD-19 Caliper

[Todd TCE]

Prefer known for left rear application, larger or small bleeder or universal type. Working condition would be nice, rebuildable considered.

Please call or email

toddandchris1@cox.net

[Comp89]

Check Ebay Item number: 4611509669

[Greg Mercurio]

Hi Todd: I have 3 or 4 raggedy LD19's left over from my conversion process. You can have all of them for the price of shipping. All need cleaning and new seals, but for sure you can make at least 2 good units from the box. email me and I'll go out and take inventory tomorrow.

[Racinggrl1]

Greg,
If Todd doesnt want them, I am very interested! Spares needed desperately

[Todd TCE]

I agreed to take them.
Sorry I didn't look at ebay first. Didn't think of it for only a caliper....my bad.
Let me see what I have to work with on these three parts.

Thanks everyone!

[Todd TCE]

Greg was kind enough to send me the box of old ones but none of them are double port or fit with the pesky little 1/4" nipple.

Hate to sound ungreatful but I still need one of these. No desire to attempt to drill and tap this one, nor to remove the caliper everytime I need to bleed it.

Happy 3 for 1 trade if someone has one that I can use!

[Brian]

The LD-19's on my Lola have those, but the spares I have from my Cooper days are all right and left hand pairs, with proper bleed nipples where you would expect them, with 7/16" hex.

Brian

[Todd TCE]

The LD-19's on my Lola have those, but the spares I have from my Cooper days are all right and left hand pairs, with proper bleed nipples where you would expect them, with 7/16" hex.

Brian

As some point there appear to have been some LD19s produced with true bleeders and inlets on BOTH ends of the caliper. Unlike the seemingly modified ones with the small bleeder.

Are you telling me this because you have one that I can use? Or just letting me know something I already do??

[RacerDave51]

Todd, I have a new LD19 (never used--in the box) that for sale again since the interested party never sent the check and/or 4 new SS LD19 pistons.

Caliper: $170.+ shipping
Caliper pistons: $50.+ shipping

DaveK

[Brian]

Neither, really, I was asking about why there are no left hand calipers. The ones I have have two ports, one in the center of the piston and one at the top on one end, just they are left and right hand. they are in despicable shape, honestly - think under a road car for 40 years in the snow belt. You want a pair, I'll send you them, let me know today. Personally I wouldn't use them but...

I just went out to the shop and looked. Major sacrifice today, there is a blizzard on up here with 50 mph winds I swear. I have two pairs, both Lockheed parts, from pre 1963 997 Cooper mini. They are in bad shape, have single input ports in the center of the piston on the main half of the caliper and single ports for bleed screws on one upper quadrant of the main body, left and right hand setup. The actual bleed ports are on the small half of the caliper (the outer half - odd but reasonable for a road car I guess). You'd have to begin by beadblasting and go from there. Probably have to machine out the port plugs.

I think that when AP bought lockheed and killed them (remember that the Cooper car was dead by 1969) - they updated the casting molds and simplified to just one casting for the main body since the ones I have have unique castings for left and right hand.

I apologise for the digression...but if you want them I'll send them to you for future favors.

Brian

[Todd TCE]

No problem Brian. Interesting read.

I suspect they are all RH however, as I don't think they were ever really LH with the tiny bleeder. Take a look at what you have, something tells me they'll only bleed up fitted to one side of a car. Hard to say. No clue who actually did this small bleeder so it's speculation that it was of the racing world. Maybe AP commisioned some?

I think I have one of them coming that will work.

[Purple Frog]

Todd,

All my old junk has only one bleeder. (up on one side of car, down on other...) But looking at them, it looks easy enough to machine in the second bleeder. have you thought of doing that?

[Robert J. Alder]

"I was asking about why there are no left hand calipers."
As I understand it the LD-19 was originally a motorcycle caliper and thus no need for LH and RH.

[Brian]

Todd, I guarantee that I have proper car pairs sitting on my shop floor, and that every Mini Cooper (not Cooper S, they used what is now called the LD-20) came with a pair of them. Different casting numbers for left and right. Very odd to me that they stopped making both sides. We used to literally toss them in the garbage since it was a really easy conversion to Cooper S calipers and discs, and to Cooper setup didn't work as well as the drums on the regular Mini's. They were never motorcycle calipers as far as I know, I've spent enough time in the National Motorcycle Museam to have noticed.

Ah, history and insignificant detail...no wonder I'm a vintage car racer at heart. With this discussion I dove into the books and found that the one pair I have with the bleeders on the small outer half of the caliper are actually for 1961/62 Cooper 997. They changed to the current style of casting with the bleeders on the big half of the caliper in 1963, probably because the other style wouldn't bleed properly. The "proper" LD19's I have on my Lola are different in detail on the casting, with different casting numbers and AP instead of Lockheed, etc, but clearly the same basic caliper. If I get bored I'll get on some Mini forums and see if anyone is doing a restoration of a 997 Cooper.

Cheers, Brian

[Todd TCE]

Cool discussion.

The LD19 and LD20 are not the same Brian, you sure you have 19s? I see props for motorcycle idea here, that would make sense. Only one basic way to mount it.

Who did the conversions to all the parts used on FFs?? That's the big questions. AP?

I did consider doing this here to one of the spares. For a minute. The caliper has do be double drilled. One time to create the passage from the piston up into the new 'upper' chamber of the bridge. Then the second hole drilled crosswise to it intersecting the first one. And that one needs to be machined with a seat and threaded. Then...you have to go back and plug the first hole! Take a look at one closely.

[Larry]

They are definitely different! The LD-19 piston measures 1.625", while the LD-20 is 1.750". The LD-20 weighs about 2 pounds more than the -19.

Larry Oliver
International Racing Products

[Todd TCE]

So who did all the mods to those calipers 'way back when'? That's the big question I guess.

[Comp89]

Todd check the general classified: http://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?t=16295

[Todd TCE]

Thanks to all who called or emailed me on the above link.

I do have one for the car now and I hope it's the last one....lol

Thanks again for all the help!

[Brian]

So I went to the AP Racing web site and the CP-2505 is the new LD-19. It is now made in a one size fits all version, with the casting drilled for both right and left hand applications. Presumably off-the-shelf if you have a stocking AP Racing dealer handy.

Brian

[scooperman]

howdy, I am an ex-SCCA C-Sedan Mini racer. I just found your old thread whild doing some Mini Cooper brake searches, I thought I might add something to this old LD19 discussion. I still have my old race car, I try to run it once a year in vintage races, and I still mess with old Minis.

Parts for older Minis are getting scarce and expensive. I am saving my Cooper S brake bits for race car spares. For street Mini upgrade from drum to disc, I tried searching for early Cooper brake bits, and I found a variant of the iron LD19 that was used on Triumph Bonnevilles. I bought a couple of these calipers on Ebay. This version has the AP logo cast into the caliper, a "Triumph Hydraulic" sticker in the middle, and had the hose port and bleed screw at the top of the caliper. I learned that there was also a one-year limited-edition Bonnie which had dual front brakes, I believe this had left and right-hand versions of the iron LD19 but I have not found any of those. The bike caliper ran a narrower disc than Minis, the slot in the caliper body is 0.4" wide.

If there is any interest, let me know, I can post pictures.

J.R.

[Jerry B.]

The LD19 castings that were used on BMC Mini's back when ...have the inlet port in the center of the piston area and a lh/rh bleed screw at the top.

However......the casting machining is different in that the pad configuration is different in the bottom area of the pad.....not with the inverted upsweep radius in the bottom of the pad but the pad is configured in a "U" shape at the bottom of the pad. The caliper machining reflects this small pad configuration. This can be overcome by splitting the caliper halves and machining the pad abutment area of the caliper to a straight side. But then the real problem becomes the rotor radius in the Mini caliper....the FF calipers are 9.5" in diameter or thereabouts and the Mini's were a lot smaller at about 8 ( ?? ) inches. Way too much machine work...besides cleaning/blasting etc.