Brake Line Oops!

[JCKnife]

As if I needed another lesson to not rush in to things...got new soft front brake lines in the mail today, went to take the old ones off. Put a wrench on the old line and braced the bracket with a screwdriver, finally got it moving but realized I was twisting the hard line. There's a big nut behind the bracket. Oops, didn't see that.

So I need to find the hard brake line that comes down from the T fitting to the axle. Any suggestions?

 

[tigger]

Any auto parts store should have it!

 

[clinto]

Generic hard line from NAPA, cut, bend and flare as necessary.

Do a search for "NAPA AND brake line" and you'll find NAPA part #'s for bulk line

 

[JCKnife]

Any auto parts store should have it!

Whew! Awesome, yes, I even found the NAPA part# in THIS THREAD!

SS delivers again!

 

[JCKnife]

So...before I screw something else up, is there any trick to unscrewing the hard line from the T-fitting? It's not wanting to budge.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Put an adjustable on the T and unscrew the line.

 

[m816]

When you can't unscrew the line from the Tee fitting. Remove the bolt from the mounting bracket. You can then get your large adjustable in place to hold it while you wrench the line off. If you put too much torque on the tee block, it will just pull apart from the tab. Then you have to take it all apart just so you can braze it back together. Take your time and keep your beer cold

 

[JCKnife]

I've got the adjustable on the t-fitting fine but that nut just does not wanna budge. Using a line wrench but I'm still rounding off the nut. Seems to be soft metal. Gonna give it a rest for a while and try again later.

 

[gimpyrobb]

Sometimes that is a sacrificial nut!

 

[mhb285]

PB Blaster.....

 

[DieselBob]

I found a slight application of heat and several love taps with a small ball peen hammer on the nut flats most of the time would allow the nut to break loose.

 

[73m819]

I've got the adjustable on the t-fitting fine but that nut just does not wanna budge. Using a line wrench but I'm still rounding off the nut. Seems to be soft metal. Gonna give it a rest for a while and try again later.

use curved jaw vice-grips on the line nut

 

[KsM715]

Sometimes that is a sacrificial nut!

use curved jaw vice-grips on the line nut

To both. Your going to replace that line anyways might as well replace the nuts too. Big pair of vice grips clamped on nice and tight.

 

[m16ty]

Like has been said above, go ahead and destroy the nut if you need to. Most replacement line comes with new nuts. I've had good results with a small pipe wrench before.

 

[rrrr]

try a little heat and pb or wd to work it loose. Also try to tighten slighty then loosen, good luck.

 

[Bob USNR]

I have been repairing cars trucks equipment for 40+ years.
I have not done this on an MV yet.
Don't have the m35 or the m817 to go out and look at here. So I have to generalize a bit.

Unless you are sure you can get satisfactory replacements for the nuts shear the lines off at the top of the nut and use a 6 point (not 12 point) socket to unscrew the nut. Tapping on the side of the "T" fitting, right on top of the threads, with the afore mentioned ball peen, helps, a lot, to loosten them up.

The end of the line left in the nut is fairly easy to remove later. Clamp it in a vise and drill the old line out, from the flare end, to remove >>most<< of the old line and use a punch to drive the last bit out. If you don't get too rough the nut will be as good as new.

Some machines and cars and trucks have different size line nuts at each end. Ford does this a lot! Some times they are unusual sizes too! The typical parts store brake lines will have the same size nuts at both ends.
If you are going to replace the lines buy a double flare kit and learn to use it correctly. The single flare kits usually rip the line just as you think you are done. Also, single flares are more likely to rip in service!

When you are done replacing the line be sure to support it >firmly< to the nearest solid thing, that is attached to the "T" fitting you are connecting to, within 12" of the "T" fitting. If you don't there is a very real possibility that the vibration of driving your vehicle will cause the line to crack. Sine most of these have "one line" brake systems that will be a brake failure. I have seen this happen in as little as 100 miles.

Where hydraulic brake parts are concerned I never use "used". Unless I can disassemble them to be sure they are in "nearly new" condition.

E

 

[Katahdin]

A problem with brute strength while under the truck is its a little too easy to pop the square T brass fittings off the steel brackets, then you have more problems. I ended up cutting the lines to each wheel, removing the T bracket nuts from the axle, wrenching off the top line, vicing the T square and removing the 2 remaining nuts with a 6 sided socket, then reassembling with the NAPA lines you found in the other thread.

I ended up cutting the lines at the wheel's banjo bolt fittings and vicing those too. My lines were pretty rusty. I remember having a little trouble popping them free with a standard length 1/2" socket wrench while in the vice, they were pretty darn tight.

 

[JCKnife]

PB blaster and vice grips (which I did not previously own) did the trick! Thanks again guys.

 

[Robo McDuff]

Did the same this spring on my 5-ton. Priority always is saving your nuts ( ) UNLESS you have a complete replacement already laying in front of you AND are sure it fits.

First trick: day before clean and put WD-40 on top of it, few times.

For the rest, Bob gave good advice. My own experience, an open-end wrench ALMOST ALWAYS slips on these @#$%$#@ nuts and start rounding them. Buy a special brake-line wrench (or whatever the name for that is). That is a wrench which is almost as a 6-corner box-end wrench, but with a small opening just fitting around the brake line. Those wrenches give you max grip and mostly that works. Just googled-wiki-ed, those things are called - big surprise - flare nut wrenches.

Make sure you have the T-split in a good grip, and then try apply the force in a short burst, maybe hit it with a hammer a few times first (we called that "scaring a nut"). Slowely increasing power mostly results in quicker slipping.

If that fails, just cut the brake line and use a good-fitting socket wrench.

The vice-grip is my last resource, mostly you can throw the nut away. No prob in the USA for MVs, a disaster in the Netherlands because we do not have replacement brake-line nuts with tthe same thread here. That is a good incentive for being very carefully

 

[JCKnife]

Yeah I tried the line wrench first (flare nut wrench) and even though it was gripping 4 sides it rounded right off.