Thread: brake lines

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My father just sold me his 67 chevelle. It hasnt moved in 3 years and we have done some work to it such as new tires, new belts, new plugs, etc. He told me though that he thinks the brake lines need to be replaced. My question is, what were your experiences with doing this and how labor intensive is it?

you just need a flaring tool, a cheap bender, and a pipe cutter, and time. it's probably 1 of the easier jobs you will do on a car. carefully remove all the old lines, and every 1 that has fancy bends, try to recreate with the bender and you can carefully use your hands on 3/16" to get stuff just right, you probably need 3/16", you will need adaptors for the master cylinder, replace the wheel cylinders in the rear drums/ front drums if you have them on the front, because they probably should be replaced anyway and it saves time fighting with the bleeders, even tho it takes some time to change the cylinders. you need to bleed the brakes after installing new lines so make shure the caliper bleeders are free ( if you have frt disc brakes ) and work, if you don't have a functional bleeder, you can't get the air out of that side.

Why would you want to replace the steel brake lines? Is there some indication that they're rusted through or have some other problem?

I can see replacing the rubber lines that go the the wheel cylinders, but why go to all the trouble of replacing everything else?

Personally I would replace line regardless of how it looks on the outside (if nothing else just based on the age of the car).

Heres my reasoning.... conventional brake fluid absorbs moisture, which eventually settles in the low spots in the system. While this is normally the wheel cylinders (as evidenced by the pits which are caused by rust that you often find in old wheel cylinders), the water can also be trapped in low spots/dips in the brake lines.

In 40 years, I have only seen 2 ruptures in steel brake lines, but in both cases the outside of the line looked fine, but it had rotted from the inside. While it is a dirty rotten job, and MAY not be necessary, it;s not a chance I would take especially on a single
reservoir brake system.

Just my 2 cents.

If you need to replace them assuming they are bad InlineTube makes direct OEM replacements for your car.

Try this link! http://www.inlinetube.com/

jc

Originally posted by 29arod
If you need to replace them assuming they are bad InlineTube makes direct OEM replacements for your car.

Try this link! http://www.inlinetube.com/

jc

Bingo, there's the correct answer. If you've never replaced lines before, you'll wreck a lot of tubing and pull out a lot of your hair if you try to bend it up yourself.

They are right about how hard it is to do it yourself. First off , you need a double flaring tool, and some practice. Personally I've never had any luck doing it, and always order custom made pieces from one of the companies specializing in this work. The cost is surprisingly low, and I always buy stainless tubing. It has been on my one car for many years, and looks like the day I put it on, and it won't rust out, ever.

An area that I may get some disagreement on is that I love silicone brake fluid (dot 5). I've heard all the stories about spongy pedal and the like, and have had the same fluid in my '27 for 15 years, both on the brakes and on the hydraulic clutch. I can get in it right now and the brakes are perfect, after sitting for the past 5 years. I like it because it won't eat my paint, and also because it doesn't suck up moisture like regular fluid.

It's just my opinion, but I will never use anything else.

Don