it was a lot of work, hard work, but i finally completed the head job on my 77 ford f100. the guy at the garage told me itk probably had a burned valve as indicated by low compression on one cylinder. he was right. the exhaust valve was cut in two places.
after i put it together, it started right up. i had to fix a gas leak but it was just a loose clamp.
some how one of my brake lines has burst and must be fixed and the tube that holds the dip stick broke off.
i'll fix both of these items in the next few days.

both of my brake lines have at least three full loops in them before they lead down to the , whereever they go. are these really needed? can i get by with just one loop? it would save space, look neater and be easier to fix. can i splice this line? it burst, or broke just a few inches from the master cylinder.

any suggestions on how to get the stube of the dip stick tube out? it broke off even with the block?

one thing i learned from this project, we don't pay our machanics enough. by the book this should have been an easy task. but reality sets in and make everything so hard.
thanks for your help.

 

I don't know exactly why brake lines have loops but I assume it gives a little flexibility. I'm pretty sure all brake lines have them(my '95 Dodge does) so they should probably be there.

 

You can grab the stub end of that tube with a tap and twist it right out.

You can be sure those loops have a purpose. The OEM's wouldn't put in a quarter inch of line they didn't feel they had to. I have no idea why they are there, maybe someone knows.

 

work with that is to allow flexing between the body and frame. If you look some masters flex when the pedal is compressed. I dont know if its true or not though.

 

Cars and trucks bend and flex as you drive. Many trucks have a frame that supports the body. The body is attached to the frame by rubber mounts, so there can be a lot of motion between the body and the frame. The master cylinder is attached to the body while some of the other brake components are attached to the frame. Also, when you step on the brake pedal, you flex the firewall of your car, moving the master cylinder but not the other components in the brakes.

A car is not always built with perfect accuracy. On one car the distance from the master cylinder to the anti-lock brake system pump will be slightly different from that on another. The extra flexibility added to the brake lines allows cars to be assembled even though they are slightly different from one another.

If the lines were short and straight, the motion of the car would eventually crack the brake lines; the continual flexing would fatigue the metal and eventually break it, just the way a spoon bent back and forth repeatedly will eventually break. By forming the brake line into a coil, the flexing in any one section is very small, and so puts almost no strain on the line.


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I have seen on some Street Rod's, where they have no loops, its straight from the master, and then goes to a steel braided hose that is about 12" long and one end has a mount that connects it to the frame, and the other end is mounted to the steel line that comes out of the master cylender. It looked sweet.. but I am not sure how much that body flexed and if it was driveable at all? I would think you could just take and cut the steel line and install a high presure steel braided hose (just make sure it is long enough to clear everything and flex at the same time). Maybe do it just like the lines are now (looped arround).... Just an idea.... And as for the dipstick (tourque1st hit that one right on the head)

 

I always thought the loops in the hard brake line were for cooling? Some heavy cars even have a small cooler on the line. Or maybe I'm dreaming.

An easy out would probably be a good tool for removing the dip stick tube.