Just today I was driven down the high wau cruizen at 70 mph when I went to hit the brakes to slow down and my brake pedel pushed all the way to the floor, It was scary as hell I could hardly stop, so I immeditatly turned aourndf took her to a brake shop, Merllins. I guess the steel brake line for the rear is cracked some were? and they would need to replace the hole thing, they said it would cost like 119 bucks I was shocked as hell, he said cause they had to do all the bending of the line and everyhting and bleeding the brakes well I went to farm and fleet ,they got brake hose for like 4 bucks, im not sure how long I need it, ill measure in the morning, but how hard is it to bend my self, and bleed the brakes, somethin ive never done, help on how to do that proporly woudl be great, I dont wanna get ripped off ,so Im gonna do it myself. I would just liek to know what im gettin my slef into, ,if brake lines are a tuff job or not, well thanx, I already miss driven my truck and it hasnt even been 12 hours, so I hope to get the brakes workin good ASAP any help would be great thanx yall

1991 f-150 4x4 302
hooker headers, straght pipes, K&N fliter
soon to have leveling coils, 3" body lift and 35" Boggers
FORD BEATS THE BOW TIE EVERYTIME

 

Don't try to bend the brake lines yourself, you are asking for trouble. It's like exhaust, you try to bend them and you kink it. Bleeding you can do easy, I'll go into that if you decide to do it. But I bought a set of lines (all 3) for 130 I think on JCWhitney.

 

thad be great if you could go in detail of bleeding the lines, and as for bending goes, im talking about gettin myself a hand pipe bender thats purpose is bending the small tube, I wasnt trying to like hand bend it no way, well thanx

1991 f-150 4x4 302
hooker headers, straght pipes
soon to have leveling coils, 3" body lift and 35" Boggers
FORD BEATS THE BOW TIE EVERYTIME

 

Hi,

I just replaced the rear hydraulic 3/16th brake line. I originally bought a double flare tool, thinking I could splice in a section to replace a rusted out hunk. It ain't worth it. The tool broke the die after two tests. I was better off replacing from the proportioning valve(?) to the flexible rear hose. I bought a 20 dollar tube bender, removed the entire 3/16 line and bent me up a replacement. After some consideration I decided to do from each end towards the center of the truck and leave a convenient final segment of tube. I took the last two pieces of line to Pep Boys and they flared 'em for free. I hooked it up, bled the line and she's good as new. Wasn't bad at all. Of course today I took the truck in for inspection thinking the brakes were fine and learned that both rotors and drums are NFG! Back to the junk yard!

good luck,

Dan

 

I have never had trouble bending the lines by hand. I will admit you can't make sharp bends like the factory did in some places, but it's really not necessary. First thing you need to do is find where it's broke. If it's like my truck it's probably rusted through along the frame somewhere in the middle. My truck had a coupler in the line in the area right under the rear of the cab. This is where I started. When I was done, I ended up replacing all the lines from that midpoint, all the way back to each rear wheel. The lines where rusted and everytime I tried to take something apart, it would twist off. I am telling you this so you won't get discouraged. I just replaced the passenger side front brake hose the other day, and had to run a new hard line from the proportioning valve across because it broke off when I tried to take it apart. The only thing that cost a little bit during the job in the rear, was a new brake hose assembly that goes down to the rear axle. The brake lines come in universal lengths, and I remember having to do a couple of zig zags in the frame rail because the available line was a little too long. You can buy a flaring tool and cut it if you want, but hey, it works the way I did it fine.

Another risky thing is when you go to bleed the brakes. There is a bleeder in the back of the wheel cylinder. It's a fitting with a hole in it. You have to back this out so air and fluid will come out during the bleeding process. There is a chance this will be froze and is easy to break off too. The easiest way to fix this is to buy another wheel cylinder(they are cheap). Basically, the parts are fairly cheap. What you were going to pay for is labor. I would recommend you get a manual or book in the store that explains a little bit, or get a friend over who has worked on brakes a little bit.

 

Sorry, forgot to add that I had my wife aid me in bleeding the brakes. I popped the lid on the brake fluid reservoir, topped off the smaller rear section and fired up the motor. while I manned the nipple on the rear brake my wife pumped the brake 3 times, keeping it down on the third pump. She yelled out the steps and on the third I slowly loosened the nipple letting the fluid spurt out. As it neared the end of the spurt I closed the nipple and she then slowly lifted the pedal. I got up topped off the reservoir and continued this routine around four times per rear brake. This was the technique that a motor head friend instructed me to do, worked good with the exception that there was brake fluid all over. I suppose you could put a section of plastic tubing on the nipple and drain it into a container. I layed newspaper under the area and wiped down the axle afterwards.

good luck,

Dan