pbob42

PB blaster and a heat gun are not getting it done. Don't want to strip this out and have to replace the whole thing. Is there a trick to getting these loose. I am working on a '63 Super 88.

Oldsmaniac

All rubber lines should be done if original, you can cut them. The metal ones are troublesome cause the nut rusts itself to the line and twists when trying to loosen. You can try a torch but sometimes you just have to replace the metal lines. If they are real rusty or rotten replace them anyway. It is wise to blow out the metal lines with air if reusing.

m371961

I have used a propane torch, but like said above you may have to replace the line.

Lady72nRob71

Are you using line wrenches? failure to do so will ruin the fittings easily.

tannerblackart

With patience and time, PB Blaster usually does the trick. When working on the exhaust manifold of my Z-28, we soaked the parts with PB, waited a day, tried unscrewing again. When it did not budge, we repeated the process. Ultimately, 3 days later, it worked.

jensenracing77

Are you just talking about breaking loose the fitting? I have had to use ViseGrips to pinch the line wrench tight to the fitting. Most times you don't have room to do this but it helps alot if you have room. Many line wrenches flex open wider on a tight fitting. With the ViseGrips pinching it tighter it will hold the fitting better and also not flex. If you are talking rusted together then you will almost certainly have to replace the line.

MDchanic

+1 to Eric, but I would add:

When I encounter a badly rusted line fitting, I have learned to go to the Vise-Grips early.
Even when using a high-quality flare nut wrench, if the nut is a little rusted away, and is rusted together, the wrench WILL slip, and WILL destroy the nut.

My personal solution:

• Lots of penetrating oil. I like KROIL, but PB Blaster is fine, too.
• TIME. Let the penetrating oil work for a few days.
  Add more from time to time, and rap the fitting sharply with a hammer when you do.
• FORCE. The thing that will break the nut loose is sudden, sharp impact. The more sudden and more sharp the better.
  Anything that softens the blow will prevent you from getting it apart, and possibly wreck the nut.
  SO, I use a pair of small curved-jaw Vise-Grips in good condition, with sharp teeth, and I make them as tight as I possibly can, considering the space and angle of where I can get my hands in.
  I clamp them right over the nut HARD.
  If the other piece of the line has any chance of moving (hose attached to an attaching tab, for instance), I clamp a large pair of curved-jaw Vise-Grips on that, as well, either backed up against something rigid, or in a way that I can hold them firmly.
• IMPACT. When I've got the nut held tightly and backed up, I rap it sharply and hard with a small sledge.
  Usually it only takes a couple of raps.

Once the nut is broken loose from the fitting, though, it is still often rusted to its line.
In order to get it loose, I add more penetrating oil, and gently work the nut back and forth, a little bit more each time. If the nut can possibly come off, it will slowly loosen. If not, you will simply twist the line, and it will break.

- Eric

classicmuscle442

All good idea's, been using a product called rust buster, comes in clear plastic bottle with a pullout spout. Wire brush as clean as possible, soak it with rust buster and give it a few minutes. Just use a small set of vise grips directly on fitting to break loose, I've had 100% success.

costpenn

All great tips here, but sometimes that nut is so corroded/welded to pipe that nothing will save that line - especially the one that goes to the back brakes coming off the distribution block. Good luck.

joe_padavano

Sadly, this is true. At that point, quit wasting time, trash the old line (which likely has rust issues elsewhere) and replace it.

Professur

I surrendered my vice grips in favour of a small pipe wrench. Vice grips will slip when you apply enough force. A pipe wrench just keeps getting tighter and the jaws are nicely parallel.


A heat gun simply doesn't have what it takes to affect a tight nut. Save it for taking off bumper stickers. A propane torch with a turbo tip will supply enough heat to help wick some lube down the threads, but you'd be well advised to try going the other way with cold shock. http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/...d-bolts-484473

dynchel

I usually heat the nut and shoot it with pb blaster while hot (try to get the pb blaster between the line & nut while its expanded). Also heating it up and "shocking it" with cold water works sometimes also.

D. Yaros

Just did the lines on my '62 Olds. Like Professur I find a small (4 inch) pipe wrench, with a length of pipe on the handle for leverage, did the trick.

rustyroger

I just don't get why North Americans go to such trouble over brake lines, I have made miles of them over the years. with the correct tools, which are not too expensive over here it is a simple if messy job.
I simply cut the line and make a new pipe. I use cupro nickel tubing, and reassemble it with copper grease on the threads, if I need to dismantle the lines again they will come apart without issues.


Roger.

Professur

NiCopp is still a new (and very expensive) product here

MDchanic

Just bought some for a car I'm doing: $40 for 25'. Not awful, considering how much easier it is on my fingertips.

- Eric

Octania

Don't forget that the best rustbuster yet devised, though it makes flammable fumes, is candle wax.

HEAT, lots of it, on the female part
Rustbuster
Time
Impact

Professur

MD, you lucky bastiche ... I paid $85 a couple of months back for a 25' roll of 1/4"

rustyroger

About the same price as over here Eric.
Did you order it online or just go to your local auto parts store?.


Roger.

D. Yaros

Because we are Americans and we can!

MDchanic

Nope.

I got it at an antique auto flea market. There's a guy there twice a year who sells all sizes.

- Eric

J-(Chicago)

I just snip the old line off flush and take the nut off with my ratchet. By the time I'm done playing around with old rusty junk I could have bent a new line already. If you just clip them off, they're great templates for the new bends.

rustyroger

Did you learn your wrenching in the UK by any chance?.


Roger.

rustyroger

I should have asked; can you buy it (and a good quality flaring tool) at an auto parts store?.


Roger.

MDchanic

Sure, but it's more expensive, and I'm a cheap SOB.

- Eric

rustyroger

Wow!, car parts cheaper in the UK than the USA????.


There's a first time for everything I suppose.


Roger.

MDchanic

As with the UK, all car parts that are, or appear to be, foreign, carry a higher price tag.

Copper brake lines are still an oddity here.

- Eric

rustyroger

Parts for "British" cars are more or less the same price as import models for the same class of car.
It's not easy to define where a car is from over here, Nissans, Hondas and Toyotas are built in England, Vauxhalls may come form England, Germany, Belgium, Spain or Poland. Some Suzuki cars are built in Hungary.


But for American cars that were never officially imported to the UK parts are often cheaper, sometimes remarkably so.
I might have to wait a day or so as they normally have to be mailed to me, but my American car isn't my drive to work, so it doesn't matter unless something breaks just before a car show.
If I wait until I have a vacation in the USA I can buy parts for half or less than what they would cost back home.


Roger.

MDchanic

My point exactly: What's foreign here is domestic there, and vice versa.

- Eric