the line from the brass splitter to the front right wheel has a split, looks to be about dead center under the car, I saw the fluid and said UGHHH brake fluid. the car does have power brakes, but it just has the single cylinder with a brass splitter sending one line to rear and one to each front wheel.

the last owner had it filled with silicone brake fluid, so that's what came with the car and I added just a tiny bit about a month ago. noticed no leaks not a drop no wetness underneath around the hoses/wheels, nothing, it had to of just happened last time I took it out.

would like an inline tube or similar place have this particular pre bent line like this for this car?

any tips for replacing the line, like does the new line has to be the exact same length if I bend it myself?

I went through this on my chevy truck, so I knew right off the bat this may not be fun in the driveway.

 

I seriously doubt that anybody will have pre-bent line for your car.
However you can go to your local auto parts store get the same size line that has the same size fittings and bend it your self. It doesn't have to be the same length.

Or you can buy the kit with line and fittings and have some for next time this happens, but you will need some tools.
I did this when replacing all the lines with stainless steel in my Cutlass. It's a little different than stock but it looks much better.

 

Good thing it didn't happen while you were out, eh?
This would be an argument in favor of switching to a dual master cylinder.


Maybe (though I doubt it). Best way to know would be to call them.


Well, you could bend a loop into a piece of line, but that just looks like crap.

Just get (or "rent" for free) a flare tool at your local chain auto parts store and make it whatever length it needs to be.

- Eric

 

It should be close to fit the right way and hit the right clips.

The brake system will not not work if it isn't exactly the same length though, you just need good connections and get from point A to point B in one piece and it will work. A flaring, bending tool is good.

 

I bought a tubing bender for $10 and flare kit with tube cutter for $12 on ebay.
It comes in handy, be careful of the MAW. I started with replacing the lines under the hood ended up doing the whole car

 

If your fingers are reasonably strong, you'll probably get better results without the tubing bender.

- Eric

 

Well .. Maw if you will .. if one brake line has said goodbye ... all the rest are the same age. If you're buying new line, splurge on the ni-copp tubing. Easier to flare, easier to bend, and doesn't rust out ever again.

 

You might be surprised. Also, some of the prebent line vendors will make the first set for free if you send them good originals to work from. This lets them introduce yet another product with little development cost. Try contacting them and asking.

 

Ok, this is gonna be the stupidest noob thing yous have heard all night, but it wasn't a brake line it was a tranny line, and the line I took off was perfectly fine and shiny under the grease. I completely screwed up taking off that brake line cause now one end is broke and I have to see if I can re-flare it and stretch it a half inch to compensate, and now I have the shitty task of trying to identify which tranny line it is that went, and to fix that now. the disappointment in myself and this project is pretty high right now, in my hurry to fix this after a long stressful day has led to more bad than good, so oh well, I know what im doing from here. I hope.

 

As my grandmother used to say, "Haste makes waste."

We've all been there.

This a good juncture at which to say that you MAW just install a new brake line now, as well as possibly a dual M/C.

Just fix the transmission line with a short length of tube and a couple of compression fittings - Easy!

- Eric

 

EBay has kits you can get they have about 20 lines and you connect them they are already flared and coupled you just need to Ben and connect you can do it by hand also I'll upload a link in a sec

 

Don't feel bad OP I had a bolt that was weak brake off in my dads head while torquing the valve cover I never realized the chunk missing in the screw and now I have a mess of drilling it out.I've been having trouble with shredding screws here lately it'll get better as will you issues keep your head up and take your time

 

thanks for the motivation guys.


so my theory is after some more very careful observation, I believe the bad spot to be where this little metal piece sticks out of the trans with 2 round grooves that the lines sit in and that's where one of them went bad, maybe rusted or rubbed against it, so its probably not the entire line but just one of the lines in that area. My plan is to take both of them off, replace the crusty old hoses holding them to the radiator, and to cut a small portion of the line out that's bad and patch the bad line with a section of rubber hose and hose clamps. wont be so pretty but should fix my problem right there. what do yous guys think?

and as for the brake line, ill probably just try to get the one I have to stretch first, because it really was spotless and should not have even been touched let alone snipped on one end and removed. that's what happens when braun prevails over brains. worst comes to worst ill bend one, but I really just don't fee like A. trying to find a 5 foot section of that line, then snipping it just the right length, then flaring it and bending it into place or B. ordering pre-bent from inline tube, waiting 2 weeks god forbid its the wrong one

 

If the brake line was in such good shape, then why did it break?

- Eric

 

it didn't, that's the point, it was mistaken leak which was really in a trans line. and it took a really good amount of force with a pair of snips to cut the one end off, and wound up being in fine shape probably better than the rest from the engine grease honestly, but that's the irony of my life.

regardless, replacement is the only realistic option, and I had posted in a thread about Englishtown, right after you I believe MD. im hoping inline tube will be there ive seen them there before, and do you think they will have the 5 foot section I need of 1/4 inch line? and maybe even a length to replace the one for the trans?

if they had a guy there who would mock it to generally look like my old one thatd be more than helpful to get me started, but that's probably just a pipe dream of a lazy mechanic.

 

I didn't wanna mess up my fingers on a stainless steel line. Lol.
It took couple of feet of tubing to bend the first line that I tried. 8" long. After I got a hang of it it was easier.

 

Wait a minute. You CUT it off?

Why on earth did you do that? You'd need the nut to be unscrewed in order to install a new one anyway.

- Eric

 

I did get it unscrewed, it was just far easier to get at cuz it was givin me some guff and I had stripped it with the flare nut wrench so some very very light heat and small vice grips I got it off no probs, the other side didn't give me no trouble and the brass block to the cylinder and flex hose to the wheel are in pretty good shape and look fine I just have to make sure the new line goes straight into them perfectly like the factory so that they don't leak that's the trickiest part of the whole procedure.

but im hoping to see inline tube about some line at the Englishtown swap meet now cuz I cant find the lengths of line I need nowhere, will they be there and would they have the 5 feet of 1/4 line I need? maybe some 3/8 line for the tranny too?

 

Honestly, I'd call them up - if they weren't planning to bring long lengths of tubing, maybe they'll throw some in the truck for you.

- Eric

 

I called them earlier today and they said a technician could bend a set of lines, and they would only sell both left and right fronts, and I had asked what they looked like and they said there's no visual comparison until they get bent in the shop. makes me iffy on ordering, A. could be the wrong ones B. might take a month to receive them. I know the front left line is about 6 inches long to the flex hose so im just hoping to get some line and do it myself. maybe ill call tomorrow and ask if they could provide some lengths at the swap meet, good idea MD.

 

Yes it will. Brake lines are hydraulic tubes, they transfer pressure by moving liquid from one place to another. Having lines the wrong length might not look pretty, but they will work as long as they have no trapped air.


Roger.

 

X2,also you will need to double flare the line and find out that the oe 50 plus year old line will split when flaring, so fabing up a new one will be a better choice.Nick

 

Go on my thread I have a link or a picture of a kit for my car but they make it for others its a simple kit really and its only fifty bucks

 

Just buy the flaring kit, bender, tube and fittings and do it your self. The length doesn't matter, as long as it connects point a to point b and clears everything.

 

For a non- experienced mechanic, I recommend you take the broken line, both pieces, to a good parts house, have them match it up to a pre-made line that has the correct ends. Buy a cheap bender and install it. You should be able to get one close to the original length.

 

This

Not this. It's only a short length, the machine made flare of a bought section is definitely the best choice. You'll waste as much line as you use practicing flares before you get an acceptable one, provided you do get a good one on a cheap flare tool. There's nothing quite as heartbreaking as bending up a perfect replacement only to fudge the flare and not have enough spare to do another ... You'll wind up making it long, then the first flare will be close to perfect and you'll be stuck with a longer-than-original piece anyhow. Save yourself the grief. The best way to absorb extra length is to bend an S where it will be protected and out of the way ... orienting it so that you're not leaving yourself a high point that can cause an air pocket and give you grief when bleeding the system out.


You did remember that you're going to have to bleed it all out, didn't ya?

 

yea, I know I have to bleed the system, probably all 4 since its all on a single cylinder system right. Ive done this before, but had ordered pre bent from inline tube. I wanna do that with this one, but im actually not so sure if the power brake system on the car is original the booster may have been added , so id hate to order power brake lines and not get the right sized lines for $55 and a 2 week wait. i still think cutting the line, bending it the right shape, then flaring the end after ive exactly measured the length i need isn't an impossible task. i might buy 2 straight sections just in case if i go this route, for the extra $25 a its good to have a spare, whether i screw up replacing this one or if another line goes later on. this all just kinda blows now. plus i still need to fix the leaking trans line, which was the real problem in the first place, although im gonna call inline tube and see if they have those too which im sure they do, cant get that mixed up theres only one style of em right?

 

It's not rocket science. It takes a little practice to get the bends right. Flaring, for me at least, was very easy. All I can say be patient and take your time.

At least after this one you will know how to bend tubing.

 

Oh for crying out loud people.

Professur, 63super88, you're making MUCH too big a deal out of this.

Just last week, I was working on my wife's car and noticed one of her brake lines was rusted (perfectly shiny where you could see it, Titanic-rusty where you could not).
For a kicker, this line had a European bubble flare at one end, and an American 45° flare on the other, and I don't have a bubble-flare tool.

What did I do?
Obsess about factory-made flares, S-curves, and re-flaring?
Worry about overpriced aftermarket suppliers and other odd sources?

No.

I disconnected the part, dragged myself out from under the car, found my car keys, drove it over to the auto parts store, bought a length of line that was a bit long, with Euro flares.

When I got home, I discovered that the nut on the Euro flared end was different from the (completely standard) nuts on the piece I bought.
Did I revert, again, to the above?

No.

I cut the original so that I could get the weird nut off, then cut the new line so that I could get the wrong nut off and the new nut on, then I held the new line next to the old line and, without a tubing bender, bent the new one to the same shape as the old (one bend at a time, from the Euro end to the American end - total elapsed time: Ten minutes), then I cut and flared the American end to the right length, then I reinstalled the line and pulled my kid away from his video game, blinking and staring in the daylight, to help me bleed it.

Half-hour job, no big deal, no big thoughts, no drama.

Just get a flare tool and some tubing and fix it.

And don't do that again.

- Eric

 

I'll wager pulling the kid outside was the hardest part.

 

... And you'd win that bet.

- Eric

 

Yeah, that's what I said. I should have said will not fail to work to be more clear.

 

welp good news. a local napa had a 5 foot section of line (it was 3/16 that i needed, not 1/4 like i had thought), and its only like 4-5 inches longer than it needs to be. im still debating on making a pigtail curl in it or just having it flared after i mock it to the exact bends it needs, this thin 3/16 line seems soft and shouldn't be that hard to flare it, will it? i also think can bend it in place by hand the regular steel 3/16 line is so thin its pretty easy to work with. then for the trans lines im gonna take em both off, plug the hoses so i don't lose all my coolant, cut the section of line that's bad and replace with rubber hose, put lines back in place and then replace the connecting hoses to the rad cuz they look pretty dry. i should hopefully be able to do this before the weekend is up if the weather cooperates and these lines don't give me too much trouble.

 

Sounds like MAW bit ya.

Be patient ... thin line is easy to bend ... and just as easy to kink.

 

yea i know, im gonna have to be extra careful, and that's half the reason i wanna re-flare a side, not so much for cosmetic reasons, but rather that i don't wanna make a curl in the line that could hold air or could get kinked during bending, know what i mean. worst comes to worst i could get another line for $7, but i just don't wanna screw up the flex hose/junction block, cuz those are much harder to find.

 

Cool, just get a good double flare kit and follow the instructions. I did all my lines on the 98 with a roll of tube and the misc. fittings that came with it. I did all the lines on my military by buying lengths then cutting one end as needed.

 

yep, so the gameplan is tomorrow morning im gonna get up early and start trying to bend the line in a general shape so I can get it in place, making sure the middle part is nice and straight and sits in the cross member nicely, then I will try to bend it into place, hopefully getting it just right and the flex hose side is the side with the extra slack, so I can cut it exactly where needed, flare it, hook it up and then bleed the front brakes. then get cracking on the trans lines. I hope the whole system doesn't have bubbles now since the union where they all meet has been open all day today, but I hope not maybe ill check em all, although I could run into other problems at any point of all this (stuck bleeders, god only knows what).

 

If you can find the steel tube for the trans lines, you can flare and install new ones.
I know I patched quite a few with hose, but metal is better.

 

When you bend the line, just stand in a fairly open area, so you don't whack anything with the line, start at one end of the line, hold the two lines right up against each other, and bend the one to match the other, then just move along the line making one bend at a time.

If you bend it wrong, you can usually unbend it and rebend it correctly, if you're careful.

Just go nice and slowly, one bend at a time, and you'll be fine.

Also, plan on wrecking the first piece.

- Eric

 

yea, but they have a couple more sections at napa, so no big deal. its taking up the extra 4 inches of slack, and fitting the ends securely without damaging the hose/brass union that's the tricky part. and then I still have to take the trans lines off, replace the hoses, and put a section of hose in for the bad section of whichever line went bad, then reinstall. this project can turn ugly fast, so simple but not.