brake lines...

So, I stated once that I have found a leak in my rear brake line, what I want to know now is, should I replace everything, or just that one line? I did alot of looking for parts, and realize that the PO or someone sometime down the road split this line for one reason or another and put a coupling in the middle of it. All other lines appear to be good at this point, and with money a little tight after the holidays and such...but am I just asking for more trouble with only replacing the one steel line?

 

Why reparing things that are still good?
I should not do that.

Greetings

Juffer

 

Re Juffer's comment, it's a philosophical question. Some people like to replace things before they break, so they would replace all the brake lines. Others think they aren't getting their money's worth from the parts until they break.

I usually do more than I should ... it's satisfying to repair the systems until they are in like-new condition. Plus problems never come along one at a time, so some preventative maintenance can often make the downtime more manageable - it takes less time to repair problems (actual or expected) in batches than one at a time.

Brake line is cheap - I'd replace as much as I could without too much effort. Once you get set up for the job, it goes quickly. The tools can be expensive though - you need a good flaring tool and a tubing bender, plus some way to bleed the brakes. Materials won't be very expensive unless you discover some other problems.

The first thing I'd do is to see if I can remove the offending line. Brake fittings can be a real pain to remove ... not so much of a problem if you can destroy them, but harder if you need to reuse them. Another option is to get a length of flared tubing and cut out the compression fitting. Then slide on new nuts and double flare each end of the old tubing. Put in a new, short length with a couple of flare unions. This is all common parts store stuff except for the flare tool. Using a compression fitting on brake lines is very dangerous - you're lucky you found it before it blew off and you lost your brakes in a panic stop on the highway. Yikes.

 

I usually take the easy route and spend a little more for someone else to do the work and just pick up a pre-bent kit. The cheapest kit I have found so far is about $115 at rigidsteel...so I may just go with that, considering I have found tubing at $30, then I would have to buy/rent the tools to bend it and flare it and stuff...

 

Yeah, but then you have the tools :smash: :smash: :smash:

If you ask around, you can probably borrow the flare tool from someone. Then the patch-up job is easy.

Be sure to use a line wrench to put this stuff together ... the Craftsman ones are fine.

 

Pictures! . . . I'd love to see a picture of that coupling! . . . Could it be something else?

:uwop:

 

LOL, I will see what I can do to get a pic of it, its kinda dark under there though!

Got a pic...

View attachment 24952

Hope that helps!

 

Looks like it's been tightened with an open-end or adjustable wrench, and both nuts have been damaged. Any wrench other than a line wrench will distort the nut and cause leaks. May have sealant on it too, which is a no-no.

 

heh, problem solved, at least for the time being, turns out the coupling was not tight, turned a full quarter turn! Bled the brakes this morning, going to do another bleeding on them in the next couple days, just to make sure we got all the air out, its still a little loose...got my vin inspection done today, sheriff came by and checked it out for me...now all I have to do is put plates on it!