How hard are the front brake lines to install? I have new ones I hadn't installed yet but one let loose today and I have to put them on. It should be easy but does anybody know of anything to watch out for?

 

Flex line or hard line?
It's a pretty simple job on most vehicles, just make sure to bleed the brakes properly.

 

Flex line. I knew it was relatively easy but wanted to make sure I was forgetting something.

 

The part I was wondering about was where it connects to the spring bucket. Didn't know how easily if pulled through there when I disconnect it from the hard line.

 

When I did mine I had two stumbling blocks. The first was figuring out how the darn clips worked. I'd never seen them before, never even saw a picture of them. My buddy told me to pull the clips and headed off for a task on the other side of the truck. Ten minutes later he's back wondering what the heck is taking me so long. I was trying to pull the clips off backwards. Oh well, live and learn.

Here's what the clip looks like:

Look at the bottom left two clips. On the truck the clip looks like it comes off by sliding off with the two folds passing by the fitting. They actually go the other way, and obviously they get removed after removing the hard brake line.

The other major stumbling block was getting the driver's side tee fitting loose. The feed line from the master cylinder came off easy, but the cross line to the passenger's side was a bugger. Aerokroil, heat, Areokroil, heat, no go. My buddy finally got it off by carefully using a cut-off wheel (the wheel of death) to make a couple small slits through the tee housing where the flare fitting threads into it. You need to be careful not to get to deep so as to damage the flare fitting. That did the trick and it finally came loose. This what the tee end looks like:



Other than those two issues, the replacement was quite straight forward.

 

I can't get the hard line disconnected from the flex line. It won't break loose.

 

That's the tough part in these. Use a proper penetrating fluid like Aerokroil or PB Blaster, not a generic lubricant or spray like WD40 and some of the others. Let it soak in for a bit and try again. If it won't come loose use a judicious amount of heat from a fine point heat source like a micro torch.

Also, if you don't have flare nut wrenches, see if you can borrow them or buy a set. These will help you to not round off the nut.

 

My father in law is a retired mechanic. He came over and showed me some tricks and we got it back on the road.

 

Congrats. Sounds like a good guy to have around. Take good care of his daughter.