How do I adjust the brakes on an MG TD or TF?

Raise one wheel at a time with the others chocked and the handbrake fully released. Turn the drum until an adjuster screw shows through a hole in the drum, screw it in clockwise until the drum locks solid, then back it off anti-clockwise one notch only so the drum spins freely. The front drums have two adjusters each and both must be set; the rear drums have a single adjuster that serves both shoes.

Do I need to adjust the handbrake separately?

No. The handbrake acts on the rear shoes and is adjusted automatically when the rear hydraulic adjustment is made. The Operation Manual specifically warns against adjusting the handbrake cables, as that interferes with the hydraulic adjustment. If the handbrake is still poor after correct rear adjustment, look for stretched or seized cables, worn linings or a seized adjuster rather than winding the cables up.

What brakes does an MG T-Type have as standard?

All T-Types use Lockheed hydraulic drum brakes on all four wheels, with 9in drums. The TA, TB and TC use a single leading shoe front brake with one wheel cylinder per drum. The TD and TF use a twin leading shoe front brake with two cylinders per drum — four across the front axle — and 1½in wide linings, with a leading-and-trailing shoe rear brake so the car still brakes in reverse. Front disc brakes were never a factory fitment on any T-Type.

My brake pedal slowly sinks to the floor — what is wrong?

A pedal that creeps down under steady pressure, with no external leak and no air in the system, almost always means the master cylinder is passing fluid internally past its seal. Check for damp floorboards under the inspection plate, and check each backplate for a weeping wheel cylinder. Adjustment will not cure a sinking pedal; that is a hydraulic fault.

Why does my T-type pull to one side under braking?

Common causes are a seized or partly seized wheel cylinder on one side, oil or brake-fluid contamination of one set of linings, uneven adjustment between the two sides, a partly blocked or collapsed flexible hose, or glazed and worn linings. Check adjustment and drum temperatures after a run first — a drum noticeably hotter than its opposite number points straight at a binding brake on that corner.

In what order should the brakes be bled?

Start at the wheel furthest from the master cylinder and work progressively nearer to it, keeping the reservoir topped up throughout so air is never drawn back into the system. Open the nipple about three-quarters of a turn, use full slow pedal strokes, and close the nipple on a down stroke once the fluid runs free of bubbles.

How often should brake fluid be changed on a T-Series?

Conventional glycol fluid absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, which lowers its boiling point and corrodes cylinder bores from the inside, so a two-yearly change is sensible for a car in regular use and it is the cheapest insurance a T-type hydraulic system can have. Do not mix fluid types; see the brake fluid guide before switching to anything silicone-based.

Can the brake shoes be relined rather than replaced?

Yes, and relining by a specialist to the correct material is normal practice on these cars — bonded or riveted linings on your own shoes avoids fitment surprises, and the shoes themselves are often better made than modern replacements. What matters more is that drums are within limits, round, and free of deep scoring, and that linings and drums are matched: new linings in a badly worn drum will only ever make partial contact.

MG T-Series Drum Brakes: Adjustment & Bleeding

Every T-Type left Abingdon with Lockheed hydraulic drum brakes on all four wheels, and properly set up they do the job the car asks of them. The trouble is that most modern drivers have never adjusted a drum brake, and the T-type system rewards a specific routine: screw the adjuster right in, back it off one notch, and let the handbrake look after itself. This is that routine, plus the hydraulic faults that adjustment cannot cure.

Owner photograph to follow

ImageA front backplate with the drum off, showing the twin leading shoes, both wheel cylinders and the two adjusters

What the standard system is

The brakes are Lockheed hydraulic, drum at all four corners, with the master cylinder sitting immediately behind the brake pedal and reached through an inspection plate in the driver's-side floor. There is no servo, no dual circuit and no pressure-limiting valve: one cylinder feeds the lot through steel pipe and short flexible hoses.

On the TD and TF the front brake is a twin leading shoe arrangement — two wheel cylinders per drum, four across the axle, each shoe with its own adjuster, which is why the front drums have two adjustment holes. The rear brake has one leading and one trailing shoe with a single wheel cylinder and a single adjuster, an arrangement chosen deliberately so the car still brakes in reverse. Drum diameter is 9in with 1½in wide linings, and the specification is shared between the TD and the TF.

The TA, TB and TC also use 9in Lockheed hydraulic drums, but with a single leading shoe front brake and one cylinder per drum — one adjuster per wheel front and rear. This is the reason twin-leading-shoe front conversions using TD/TF-type cylinders are a well-trodden TC upgrade: the standard TC front brake is doing less work per drum than a TD's. Lining widths on the earlier cars are quoted inconsistently in the aftermarket, so measure yours or confirm against the Workshop Manual rather than ordering on a model name alone.

Drum layout by model

Model	Front	Rear	Adjusters per drum
TA / TB / TC	9in drum, single leading shoe, one cylinder	9in drum, leading and trailing shoe	One front, one rear
TD / TD2 / TF / TF 1500	9in × 1½in drum, twin leading shoe, two cylinders	9in × 1½in drum, leading and trailing shoe	Two front, one rear

Wire-wheel and disc-wheel cars share the brake internals; only the hub and drum attachment differ. If you are working on a car with front discs, that is an aftermarket conversion rather than a factory system — the modern upgrades guide covers those, and this page covers what the factory fitted.

Reading the symptom

What you feel	Most likely	First move
Long pedal travel, then firm	Shoe wear — brakes need adjusting	Adjust all four drums, one notch back off
Pedal sinks slowly under held pressure	Master cylinder passing internally	Check for damp floorboards and wet backplates, then rebuild or replace
Spongy pedal that firms on a second pump	Air in the system, or a swollen flexible hose	Bleed furthest wheel first; inspect hoses for bulging
Car pulls to one side	Seized or leaking cylinder, contaminated linings, uneven adjustment	Compare drum temperatures after a run; pull the suspect drum
Brakes bind or drag when hot	Over-tight adjustment, seized cylinder, blocked master-cylinder relief	Back the adjusters off a notch and re-test before condemning parts
Fluid level falling with no visible leak	Fluid escaping past a wheel-cylinder seal into a drum	Pull drums and look for a wet backplate and darkened lining
Poor handbrake, good foot brake	Stretched or seized cables, worn rear linings, seized rear adjuster	Re-adjust the rear hydraulics correctly — never the cables

Working through it

01
Confirm the symptom is adjustment and not hydraulics
The factory test is simple: the need for brake adjustment is shown by excessive travel of the brake pedal. A pedal that goes down further than it used to but then feels firm is usually shoe wear taking up in the drums. A pedal that sinks slowly under steady pressure, or that goes to the floor and comes back after a second pump, is a hydraulic fault — a leaking wheel cylinder, a failing master cylinder or air in the system — and no amount of adjuster winding will fix it.
02
Check the fluid level before anything else
On the TD and TF the master cylinder is reached by turning back the driver's-side floor carpet and lifting the small inspection plate, then undoing the filler plug. The level should sit about half an inch below the bottom of the filler neck and never above it. A level that keeps dropping with no visible puddle is usually fluid going past a wheel-cylinder seal into a drum, or past the master-cylinder seals — look for a wet backplate and a glazed, dark patch on the lining.
03
Raise the car properly and chock the wheels still on the ground
Adjustment is done wheel by wheel with the drum free to spin, so each corner is lifted in turn onto a stand with the remaining wheels chocked. Release the handbrake fully before touching the rear adjusters — with the handbrake on, the rear shoes are already pushed out and the adjustment will come out wrong.
04
Adjust the front brakes: two adjusters per drum on the TD and TF
Rotate the drum until one adjuster screw appears through a hole in the drum face. Turn it clockwise with a screwdriver until the drum is locked solid, then back it off anti-clockwise one notch only. The drum should now turn freely with no shoe rub. Rotate the drum until the adjuster diametrically opposite is visible and repeat. Both adjusters must be done: on the twin-leading-shoe front brake each adjuster serves its own shoe, and doing only one leaves half the brake slack.
05
Adjust the rear brakes: one adjuster per drum
The rear brake is a single leading and trailing shoe layout with one adjuster controlling both shoes. The procedure is otherwise identical — screw in until the drum locks, back off one notch, confirm the drum spins freely. Do this with the handbrake fully off.
06
Leave the handbrake cables alone
The handbrake works on the rear shoes and is adjusted automatically whenever the rear hydraulic adjustment is made. The Operation Manual is explicit that no attempt should be made to adjust the handbrake cables themselves, because doing so upsets the hydraulic adjustment. If the handbrake is poor after a correct rear adjustment, look for stretched or seized cables, worn linings, or a rear brake that is not adjusting because the adjuster thread has seized.
07
Bleed in the right order, keeping the reservoir full
Bleed the wheel furthest from the master cylinder first and work towards it, topping up the reservoir at every stage so air is never drawn back in. Fit a tube from the bleed nipple into a jar with a little fluid in it, open the nipple about three-quarters of a turn, and have a helper push the pedal down through its full stroke and let it return slowly. Close the nipple on a down stroke when the fluid runs clear of bubbles. On these small systems it is easy to empty the reservoir without noticing, which simply starts the job again.
08
Suspect the master cylinder when the pedal creeps
A pedal that slowly sinks while you hold pressure at a standstill, with no external leak and no air, is the classic failed master cylinder: fluid is passing internally around the main seal. Fluid on the floorboards or a soggy carpet under the inspection plate is the other tell-tale. Rebuild kits and exchange cylinders are available, but a bore that is pitted or scored will not hold new seals for long and is better replaced or sleeved.
09
Suspect a wheel cylinder when one brake pulls, binds or wets a drum
A seized wheel cylinder gives a brake that does not release, a car that pulls to one side, and a drum that gets hot; a leaking one gives a wet backplate, contaminated linings and a falling fluid level. Wheel cylinders can be stripped and re-sealed if the bore is clean, but pitted bores are cheap to replace against the cost of doing the job twice. Whenever a cylinder has leaked, the linings on that wheel are contaminated and should be renewed — and note the front brake on a TD or TF has two cylinders per drum, four across the axle.
10
Renew the fluid on schedule, not on symptoms
Conventional glycol brake fluid is hygroscopic — it absorbs water from the air, which lowers the boiling point and corrodes cylinder bores from the inside. Two-yearly renewal is the sensible interval for a car in use, and it is the single cheapest thing that keeps a seventy-year-old hydraulic system alive. The fluid-change guide covers what to use and what not to mix.
11
Road-test in stages
First check the pedal is firm and high with the engine off, then that it does not creep under held pressure. Then a walking-pace stop, then a firmer one from 20mph on a clear road, feeling for pull, judder or a grabbing brake. Re-check the fluid level and look for weeps at every union and backplate afterwards. Fresh linings need a few hundred gentle miles to bed in and the adjustment is worth checking again after that.

Figures we are not going to invent

The adjustment procedure, the half-inch fluid level below the filler neck and the warning against touching the handbrake cables are taken from the factory Operation Manual for the TD, and the twin-leading-shoe front layout with 9in × 1½in drums is confirmed by marque parts catalogues for the TD and TF. What we deliberately do not publish here are drum wear limits, minimum lining thickness, shoe-return spring specifications and pipe-union torques: these vary between models and between sources, and a wrong figure on a brake is not a harmless error. Take those from the Workshop Manual for your chassis, and if your manual is ambiguous the MG Car Club T Register and the MG Owners' Club will confirm for a specific car. The settings and torque page explains how this site attributes every published figure.

Common questions

How do I adjust the brakes on an MG TD or TF?: Raise one wheel at a time with the others chocked and the handbrake fully released. Turn the drum until an adjuster screw shows through a hole in the drum, screw it in clockwise until the drum locks solid, then back it off anti-clockwise one notch only so the drum spins freely. The front drums have two adjusters each and both must be set; the rear drums have a single adjuster that serves both shoes.
Do I need to adjust the handbrake separately?: No. The handbrake acts on the rear shoes and is adjusted automatically when the rear hydraulic adjustment is made. The Operation Manual specifically warns against adjusting the handbrake cables, as that interferes with the hydraulic adjustment. If the handbrake is still poor after correct rear adjustment, look for stretched or seized cables, worn linings or a seized adjuster rather than winding the cables up.
What brakes does an MG T-Type have as standard?: All T-Types use Lockheed hydraulic drum brakes on all four wheels, with 9in drums. The TA, TB and TC use a single leading shoe front brake with one wheel cylinder per drum. The TD and TF use a twin leading shoe front brake with two cylinders per drum — four across the front axle — and 1½in wide linings, with a leading-and-trailing shoe rear brake so the car still brakes in reverse. Front disc brakes were never a factory fitment on any T-Type.
My brake pedal slowly sinks to the floor — what is wrong?: A pedal that creeps down under steady pressure, with no external leak and no air in the system, almost always means the master cylinder is passing fluid internally past its seal. Check for damp floorboards under the inspection plate, and check each backplate for a weeping wheel cylinder. Adjustment will not cure a sinking pedal; that is a hydraulic fault.
Why does my T-type pull to one side under braking?: Common causes are a seized or partly seized wheel cylinder on one side, oil or brake-fluid contamination of one set of linings, uneven adjustment between the two sides, a partly blocked or collapsed flexible hose, or glazed and worn linings. Check adjustment and drum temperatures after a run first — a drum noticeably hotter than its opposite number points straight at a binding brake on that corner.
In what order should the brakes be bled?: Start at the wheel furthest from the master cylinder and work progressively nearer to it, keeping the reservoir topped up throughout so air is never drawn back into the system. Open the nipple about three-quarters of a turn, use full slow pedal strokes, and close the nipple on a down stroke once the fluid runs free of bubbles.
How often should brake fluid be changed on a T-Series?: Conventional glycol fluid absorbs moisture from the atmosphere, which lowers its boiling point and corrodes cylinder bores from the inside, so a two-yearly change is sensible for a car in regular use and it is the cheapest insurance a T-type hydraulic system can have. Do not mix fluid types; see the brake fluid guide before switching to anything silicone-based.
Can the brake shoes be relined rather than replaced?: Yes, and relining by a specialist to the correct material is normal practice on these cars — bonded or riveted linings on your own shoes avoids fitment surprises, and the shoes themselves are often better made than modern replacements. What matters more is that drums are within limits, round, and free of deep scoring, and that linings and drums are matched: new linings in a badly worn drum will only ever make partial contact.

This guide is a general introduction and is not a substitute for the official Workshop Manual for your car. Brakes are safety-critical: if you are unsure of any part of the work, have it checked by a marque specialist before the car goes on the road.