Hi All
Yes you could have been right asd regards the after market brakes.....
Here is my story........
Photo number 1: Old brakes
Photo number 2: New set up - new brakes, new slave cyclinder.
After about 5 hours of removing the old brake shoes and cylinder and standing back to admire my work, I noticed that the distance between the caliper heads and the slave cylinder where completely different from old to new...... by about 1cm each side!.
I initially thought the piston cylinder was smaller.
Measured it....fine 22mm
I painfully removed both brake shoes and compared them in size against the old ones.
Pretty much the same but there they were slightly different for example the back spring holes were in a slightly different postion too.
This made hooking the new back-springs on a real nightmare.
Then I examined the metal plate that runs along the top keeping the brake shoes apart.
I removed it cleaned it up See photo 3
How strange on closer examination of that part it looked as if someone had 'filled-in' the notches on both ends (you can only see one end on the photo)
I measured the original depths and they were 1cm each end!
I bought a hacksaw and then spent another 2 hours cutting away all the 'new' metal solder that had been put in on both ends, therefore returning the notches to their original depth.
I then put it all back together again and I was correct as it all went in to place. A slight adjustment of the hand brake cable tension is needed but that can be done under the car.
10 hours later I have my new brakes on one side......now for the other side.