New brake lines ?
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From: Mount Dora, Fla
New brake lines ? I just had a nine inch rear installed, in addition to other problems I still have the old 10 bolt brake lines and they look like spagetti around the new axle housing. How do I go about replacing the old steel lines, so that I can bend them to conform to the new axle tubes and look decent? Where can I get the steel line tubing from? Also what about bleeding the brakes when you have ABS, does that require special equipment?
I tried this, bought tubing, bent 4 or 5 lines, and still looked like crap, so I took the stockers and wire tied them into place. They fit the contour of the rearend pretty well. Not to mention to use new brake lines, you need a double flaring tool, which is signifigantly more $$$ than a $15 flaring tool. I just wasn't comfortable with less than perfect flares, not to mention not being able to get them to fit as good as the stockers.
Shawn
Shawn
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From: Mount Dora, Fla
Well, I've got to do something, my lines at the rear end truly look like spagetti, some of them are so bad they are almost kinked. You say the steel ends are hard to flare? I thought you could buy ready made sections of tubing that was already flared at both ends and had the spiral steel already wound around the main tube, and all you had to do was bend it. If I can't do this then i'm going to have to pay to have it done because what I've got now is real afro engineering.
The pieces that you buy with the fittings on them and already flared at the end are a different kind of flare than our calipers have. I was told by a chassis builder who fabs brake lines that we need a double flare (look at the end of your factory line, the flared area looks like a mushroom, not a simple flare) and that a traditional flare could cause fluid to escape under pressure causing brake failure.
Shawn
Shawn
home depot sells a double flaring tool and bender manufacturered by rigid that works well. The rigid bender does a 3" (or so) radius which is sometimes to large so I have a piece of oem coil that fits over the line and I use that to bend a tighter radius when needed. get the lines at any auto parts house.
If you need to make the GM Metric flare then you'll have to step up to a "real" flaring tool such as the mastercool 71450. http://www.mastercool.com/m54.html
If you need to make the GM Metric flare then you'll have to step up to a "real" flaring tool such as the mastercool 71450. http://www.mastercool.com/m54.html
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From: Mount Dora, Fla
What I'm going to try and do is buy the ready made lines the length I need and then all I will have to do is bend them. I think what I'm more concerned about is bleeding the lines with ABS I think you need a proprietary bleeder.
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I bled mine with one of those vacumm pumps twice now with no problems. Just as long as the ABS unit doesn't empty out completely (mine didn't, and my rear brake lines were off for ~1 week) you should be fine. Good luck with it, post pics when finished, Shawn 
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