Now this may be a dumb question but I need to ask. Now my question is is it hard to bend your own brake lines? The second one was what size of piping should I use? I worked as an electrician and I have bent pipe and I know how to bend pipe. So I quess I was wondering is there a lot of diffrence and is it hard. Past experiences and personal knowledge would be great.

 

Just replaced all the lines on my '66 F250. They are 3/16" lines, so I can't speak to whether larger lines are as workable, but the 3/16" are very malleable. A bender at the autoparts store was kinda spendy, so I used its measurements as a model and built a home-made bender out of plywood and a wooden turned segment of an old couch leg. It worked great, and the project came out fine. Where the radius created by the bender isn't just right, you can modify carefully with your hands. Get or borrow a good double-flare tool, and you're in business. It may be that quite a bit of your project you can do with ready-made lengths of brakeline complete with compression fittings. These aren't very costly. Buy a couple and practice bending before you decide. It's a good idea to survey the routing, number, and lengths of lines you'll replace before you start. Have fun.

 

It is easy with a tube bender and a good one with four different sized wheels costs under $30. Doing some vehicles, such as the the front ones in an Aerostar or BII, will give you fits because you have to have the vehicle on a lift to fit them back in because they require a few unique angles and some require the brake line almost vertical when it gets moved around.

Your truck is fairly easy.

Your lines should be 3/16 steel. I use adapters from NAPA to ditch the OEM fittings on the brake booster. Seach 67-72 forum for the thread about it using NAPA and my name.

The really hard part if making a quality flare if you have to shorten a line. A good double flaring tool is about $50 and worth every penny. Always remove the burrs left over from the cutting and flaring to prevent leaks. If you have the pipe spot on when doing the filing, cutting and flaring, you will not have burrs or ridges.

 

I just finished bending sveral lines for my '94. I bought line from the auto parts store that had the fittings and flares. Using the old line (if you have it) you can estimate how long a new line you need. If you are over by an inch or two it is no big deal as you can usually bend the line a bit to 'take up' the excess. I bought and used a simple bending tool that was merely a handle holding a round head with notches for several different diameters of tubing. The tool helped greatly in preventing me from kinking the line when making those tighter bends. I used simple hand pressure for minor bends and tweaks. I was hesitant to bend my own lines as I think brakes are probably the most important thing on a vehicle both for my own safety and the safety of others. Having the preflared lines really helped boost my confidence!

 

As stated, it's simple. Ditto what everyone said.

But, on that different size brake tubes: Some people have told me that it will reduce the fluid pressure (while increasing volume) to the calipers and what not. I dont think this is the case, because the orifaces in your master cylinder AND calipers/slave cylinders dont change size. If you have ONE section of 3/16" tubing in an otherwise 1/4 inch tube, then the rest of the 1/4" tube simply adds volume. In either case, adding 1/4" tube to my '79 Bronco helped me lots.

And on your flares...make SURE you are doing a DOUBLE flare, and not a SINGLE flare. Also, always always always champfer the inside and outside edges of your fresh cut tube before you crimp it. The tool that you can get for reloading smokeless powder shells works very well...better than the pointy file that may come with your double flare kit or tubing cutter, and is much faster.

Oh yah..remember to put your fitting on the tube before you flare it, lest cursing be to follow.

 

well you know this is why i love this site. Hey thanks guys I really appreciate all the help and info.

 

i used some stuff called flex-a-bend i think. bends by hand. stuff is great, i didnt get any kinks at all. time will tell though how it will hold up, but seems like decent stuff

 

> better than the pointy file that may come

Yes, I use a file to ream out the inside. Not stated, but, blow or clean out the line before you attach it to your car. It helps get out whatever you or the store put into it before you atatch it to your new system.

re:flex-a-bend
I do not know how long that stuff hold up, though I believe it is banned by most racing bodies, if that tells you anything.

 

I did it on my Mustang. I swapped drums for discs on the front and had to bend my own lines. I used a bender that I got from Eastwood and got the line from a Carquest along with a few adapters.

 

Litle Bro mentioned compression fittings..do not use comp fittings on brake lines, double flare is a must.In NY it is a no-no to use comp fittings on brake lines, and the vehicle will not pass NYState Inspection. Living in NY you get used to replacing gas and brake lines (did 5 of our vehicles last year.

 

It's not only in NY. It's DOT rules that say it must be double flare. Not single flare, not that weird bubble flare they use in europe, only double flare.

It's the safest thing to do. And it's really simple. If I can figure it out, I know anyone else here can.

PLUS, with a double flare kit, you can make single flares (what do you use these for??? ) and you can use the bubble flare on hard fuel lines so when you clamp on the soft hoses, they wont go anywhere.

BUT, now that I look at his post, I can remember having a few of those brake lines in the shed. I think he could be talking about the taper on the brake fittings. I can see how someone may think of those as compression fittings.

 

Oh yah. One other important thing. If youre going with stainless steel lines, it's said that they are too stiff for a standard double flare 45deg.

You may need -AN fittings for that type of line.

 

<<<<> better than the pointy file that may come>>>>... the "rat tail"


i bent a fuel line from the fuel pump to the carb fuel filter holder. the store lent me the bending tool and the flaring tool but together they don't cost more than 100$

check out the plumbing section. i found the bending tool there in a shrink wrap for 20$ less than the automotive dept that carries the exact same tool but comes packaged in a little plastic tool case

i didn't use a reamer but used sandpaper instead. to cut the pipe i tried a hacksaw but that made nasty cuts that don't fit the flaring tool well. i got a cheap pipe cutter from the plumbing dept that worked excellent.

the little couplings were not expensive so i got new ones. come in a little package. the parts clerk helped me find ones that matched my gague of line and the size thread on the fuel filter going into the carb. i just brought in my fuel filter housing and they got me everything i need

the only problems i had was i used steel tubing at first which is harder to bend and tends to kink when you try to bend it all the way to 90degrees. i fiddled around with the tool to apply the pressure at different spots in the bend and it came out looking all right but i think it was too flat in the bends and restricted fuel flow. i went back and got copper tubing that was much better to work with and bent without any kinks

 

I've never used a rat tail file, a hole file, a needle file, or whatever you may call it on this type of thing. What normaly comes with the little tube cutting tool is a flat file, cut to a point.

As to your steel kinking...did your bender have an indexed recess for the proper size fuel line? I've never had any fuel line kink. Except for when remove it from the vehicle and fold it up into a little ball to chuck at the trash can.

How long have you had your copper fuel line on the vehicle? My old mechanic (and I dont go there for a reason, so he couldda been wrong) told me that copper will get green stuff built up in it if you use fuel in it. Especially gasohol.

 

Copper tubing is a no-no on a vehicle. The copper "work hardens" and becomes brittle leading to catastophic failures. I believe it is also against DOT reg's, but may be wrong.