Replacing brake pipes

[Stani1029]

With me upgrading the stock brakes on my car at the front i bought braided brake lines back/front now im toying with the idea of replacing all the brake pipes. Of which i want to do it myself. Im just needing pointed in the right direction of a decent flare kit and fittings that will fit

 

[will930]

i woudlnt of thought theyd need doing unless they are physically damaged....

ive only replaced them on a mk1 e-type cos they were originally done stupidly and awkward so we made them more accessable but after 50odd years they were fine :S

i dont know if you ever answered ut where did you get the braided lines from?

 

[Stani1029]

Im not one for leaving it because its fine lol nice new copper ones will look better and im toying with running them through the car like ive seen previously. The lines were from ebay

 

[will930]

oh right fair enough but thas me if it doesnt need doing it wont be done but hey! when i go lower i will possibly have to sort everything out like that!

dash pod came today while im here! wondering what to do with the broken latch though! maybe just make it a push in at the rear thing as it opens that way...

were the specific brake lines?

 

[Stani1029]

Thats good mate and i can only think of a gripper catch stuck on.

Thry were goodridge ones

 

[will930]

i see i guess its universal for drum and calliper etc lol...

but id just go for a working kit from a known company and see if there are any reviews

 

[Stani1029]

Well attempted some brake pipe replacement today. Bought a cheap kit and some unions and 50ft pipe. Total cost £47 lol this wasnt my car i done the pipes on though i think ill be replacing all of mines, looked at some videos and im sure the one i thought was best left me with a minor leak on one out of the 4 flares i done. So going to redo both sides again with a new technique on the bubble flare.

 

[Guy]

Looks good Stani! I replaced all the lines on a Series III landrover with one of those kits. They're a right pain in the 'arris to use and really make you want to take out a bank loan and buy a proper setup. They do work though if you're persistent .

 

[solarice]

I just had mine made up to length then fitted them. The kit though means you can do any car you like.

 

[Stani1029]

I was going to buy the £180 kit but im a joiner not a mechanic, proper money is spent on my work tools lol as for that kit it seemed ok for the job, one question??? When clamping the pipe ready for flaring do i have to crank the wingnut right around? I really dont want to crush the pipe.....

 

[gtsnissanb]

Unusual kit that, I use the vice mounted type so don't know how you'd use that one

 

[Guy]

You need to clamp only so tight that it doesn't slide back when you crank the flaring tool down on it .

 

[Stani1029]

You need to clamp only so tight that it doesn't slide back when you crank the flaring tool down on it .

Ok thats what i was doing, the videos ive watched theyve been turning the nut with vice grips lol one of the videos does say thats because there tool is worn

 

[r-reg-sr]

keep this technique thing updated mate,very interesting
they do get corroded badly

 

[Stani1029]

I can take photos tomorrow of each step if you wish? Im glad i can do it now as its one less thing i will let a garage touched my car for

 

[Guy]

That's the attitude Stani - it's what convinced me to tackle changing my plugs last weekend. The prob is when you finally do the perfect flare and realise you've not put the union nut on the pipe first :doh: :laugh:.

 

[Stani1029]

See i got that part right, do first flare, put on 2 unions (the opposite ways to each other) flare 2nd and tighten up

 

[Noddie]

That's the attitude Stani - it's what convinced me to tackle changing my plugs last weekend. The prob is when you finally do the perfect flare and realise you've not put the union nut on the pipe first :doh: :laugh:.

Haha, yeah, done that a couple of times!

 

[pollyp]

Haha, yeah, done that a couple of times!

Lol same here. Face palm myself when i realised oh ffs have to do it again

 

[Stani1029]

As promised

cut pipe to desired length

Use this part of the tool to take of the burr created when cutting

Then file off the remaining parts

Put the pipe into the correct sized slot and make sure you use the correct end of the tool wether its a double/bubble flare that you wish to do

Not a great picture here, the black button with the pin sticking out i read that the first step is the length of pipe you leave sticking out the tool but this didnt work so i added another 1-2 mm

Then tighten both wingnuts up (i done as hand tight as possible)

Put the black button with the pin inside the brake pipe on top

Fit the clamp and tighten down. (i never done it as far as i can go)

You end up with this

Push on a union

DONE

I then screwed in the union, shaped the pipe. Pushed on another union and repeated tge flare process again

 

[Guy]

Excellent result Stani, I don't remember getting flares that well shaped .

 

[pollyp]

stani i think i remember ur supposed to use the other side of the pipe clamp where its chamfered (pictured on post #7) rather than the side thats flat. when i made that mistake it was very hard trying to form the head and almost breaking the tool bit. when i realised bout the chamfered side it was much easier effort to form.

 

[Stani1029]

polly at first i used the chamfered side but when i removed the old brake pipe they had not been done with the chamfered side so i copied what was already there (Y)

 

[r-reg-sr]

you dont miss a thing. nice spot pollyp.
trial and error is good,copper aint cheap
nice one stani,very clear to understand.keep the updates on this rolling in!

 

[davidxzy]

In the photo, the brake unions are fully threaded. For DIN, you need unions with a lead, not the fully threaded ones. Are your brakes leaking?