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The rear flexible brake hose on my 74 F-100 looks like it is attached to the left side axle. Here's my question - the flexible hose end has a hole through which a 9/16 bolt secures it to the axle. But right above the nut is a rubber hose and clamp. What is its purpose? To remove the flexible brake hose you just put a wrench on the 9/16 head and lefty loosey?
Coming off the hollow 9/16 bolt is a breather that clamps to the frame above the axle. It keeps pressure from building up in the axle, but keeps water and mud out of the axle tube. It looks like this, right?
Thanks everyone. Great looking chassis on your trucks. So to remove the flex hose, just stick a 9/16 flare wrench on the nut and remove? Should I replace the rubber hose and clamp on the axle bleed tube?
If the hose is still soft and pliable no need to replace.
One thing I would do though, while you have the bolt off, check the hole in the breather. While the bolt is good size, the actual hole is pretty small and cloggs up easy. Most of the ones I've checked have been clogged. You can run a small drill bit through the hole to clean it out.
Mike, up near the connection close to the shock absorber the flex hose is rusted out. Bad. Not leaking yet but probably soon. One of my front hoses started leaking and looked the same.
Go ahead and replace the brake hoses. The parts store calls the rear hose the "center hose" for some strange reason. On the truck I'm building, I bought a coil of steel line and just replaced the whole thing front to back. It'll be another 20 years before the customer has to worry about brake lines rotting and leaking.
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