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Brake Lines - Replace or Not


RobertKB

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Just want to find out what others have done or would recommend. I have owned and driven my 1948 Dodge D25 Club Coupe since 1980. I have never driven it on winter roads and it has lived in a heated garage for the last 28 years.  After recently having a front wheel cylinder start leaking, I sent out all six wheel cylinders and the master cylinder to White Post Resorations to have them bored and lined with brass. I am debating whether to replace all the old brake lines with new lines. The old lines are the age of the car so they are 66 years old. I have never had a problem with them and upon visual inspection they appear to be perfectly sound. On the other hand, new lines mean quite a bit of work bending them to fit. What you can buy is never quite the right length, especially the ones between the two cylinders in each front wheel. New lines also mean never thinking about them again.

 

So, who still runs their old lines and who have replaced theirs or would in my situation? Do I leave well enough alone....if it ain't broke don't fix it OR do I replace just to have a sense of never thinking of them again? Tell me what you have and what you think. Thanks in advance and I will let you know what I end up doing.

Edited by RobertKB
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I would take them out and send to Inline tube for duplication. After installing the news ones you won't have to worry about it for another 66 years! 

I concur with GTK, is all you need Rob is 1 section of brake line to blow out, and disaster. Replace and be done with it.....

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Brakes are the topic of the day.

I am doing my lines now. Bought a pre done kit off eBay and will have to bend them to fit. I also got caught up in thinking about doing a duel master as I did the front conversion a few months back. Ditched that idea. I say do it as they are old and one pin hole can ruin your day and car. It is not a hard job. I am letting PB blaster soak now on the connections in hopes loosing them.

Edited by White Spyder
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If the reason  for boring and sleeving the cylinders was due to pitting, replace all the lines and hoses.  Brakes lines deteriorate from the inside as well as the outside and chancing a line that may be adequate for normal braking may blow during an emergency stop.   I'd use the cupro-nickel line.  It bends easily and flares easy too, never rusts.

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Replace all the lines when you're under there.  Brake lines suffer from galvanic corrosion where the line is nestled in a clip, no matter how clean the rest of the line is.  When I was in college, the line on the rear axle of my '64 Comet sprung a leak at the top of a mountain.  It was very nerve-wracking getting home.   Replace the lines now for peace-of-mind.

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I have dealt with In-Line Tube two times with two different cars with similar results. When ordered, they said they have the lines for my car but the lines received were not all correct. The first time I complained and they told me to send all my old lines and they would copy them. This worked well because everything fit. The second time I bent the lines received to make them work. Had problems with 4 of the 11 lines sent. AS mentioned above, send the old lines to be reproduced.

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Thanks guys! Basically you all think like me, REPLACE. I will look into In-Line tube and see what they have to say. Might be expensive as it is the other side of the border for me but I sure like the idea of having lines that are prebent to fit my car. I will post pics as the project progresses. I was very pleased with the cylinders done by White Post. A bit pricey but again....peace of mind.

 

PS - how did you ship your old lines to In-line? There are some pretty long lines involved.

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Call them and ask what they recommend for shipping.

 

If you do not see your application among our thousands of items, we can use your originals as patterns to custom duplicate new components. Before sending in any parts, check our online catalog or call the main office (586-532-1338) to make sure your car or truck is not already listed.

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I sent in my old lines form my truck for duplication. Used a bicycle shipping box. They have pretty good instructions how to do it so they will fit in the box and they can put it back together to get the correct angles. Made the reassembly job very easy.

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FWIW I replaced all of mine except that little one between the 2 front cylinders

 

It now looks like Inline produces those.

 

I sent in my old lines form my truck for duplication. Used a bicycle shipping box. They have pretty good instructions how to do it so they will fit in the box and they can put it back together to get the correct angles. Made the reassembly job very easy.

 

Might send mine in. Need to talk to them and make sure that the D25 is going to be the same as a P15. Should be. I hope so as it would save me the cost of shipping mine to the US. The only difference that I can think of that there might be is up to the front of the frame which is a bit different because of the longer engine. Probably have to send mine in.

Edited by RobertKB
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I fabbed up all the brake, vacuum and fuel lines 1/4, 5/16" and 1/2" on this old Chrysler CW Airflow.

All stainless tube.

 

3/16" and 1/4 soft steel brake tube or cunifer tube is  easy to form--even for the  DIY'er.

If you look at youtube vids of brake line repairs there are a lot of video's giving plenty of info on how to do this kind of tube bending and flaring fabrication for the every day car owner. 

It's fun to learn and be able to do repairs on your old ride!

Might want to give it a try.

Bob

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post-302-0-11245100-1420001381_thumb.jpg

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I bought straight lengths for the front wheels at Advanced Auto and bent them to fit using a tube bender and used a 25ft roll to do the back wheels and run a line from the rear axle forward, then double flared the ends. First time I used a tubing bender but it only took a few bends to get the hang of it. Across the rear axle was easy and from there to the front is a straight shot anyway. Got the front drivers on the first try but the front passengers ended up to short so I had to go get another piece and started from scratch. Got it on the second try. Had it all done in a day.

Bottom line is it did not cost much and was not a whole lot of effort.

 

Brakes are the topic of the day.

I am doing my lines now. Bought a pre done kit off eBay and will have to bend them to fit. I also got caught up in thinking about doing a duel master as I did the front conversion a few months back. Ditched that idea. I say do it as they are old and one pin hole can ruin your day and car. It is not a hard job. I am letting PB blaster soak now on the connections in hopes loosing them.

 

Tried this to, the lines I received for a 39 Plymouth P8 were not the lines I needed. A few would work but the ones I received that were labeled as front was not long enough. Also they made the line going from the rear axle along the frame to the front two pieces. Had a connection and I don't think that's necessary. Also the short piece from the master cylinder to the brass junction was to short.

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I would expect that if you are pulling the lines out for duplication, you could do a very nice job of duplicating them yourself with the easy bend stuff available at many parts stores. Available in pre-cut  lengths with fittings,(limited flare work required) or bulk. No shipping involved. No double shipping involved for errors.

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Any reasons why you didn't have them re-sleeved with s.s.?

 

White Post Restorations only do brass. They are a very well known restoration shop and I assume they would use brass on their own projects. Nothing wrong with stainless but brass is what they do. All cylinders come back cleaned and rebuilt using either good original parts or new parts. Also come with a life-time guarantee.

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White Post Restorations only do brass. They are a very well known restoration shop and I assume they would use brass on their own projects. Nothing wrong with stainless but brass is what they do. All cylinders come back cleaned and rebuilt using either good original parts or new parts. Also come with a life-time guarantee.

I ask the same question years ago about brass vs stainless and was told the brass alloy has less friction than stainless thereby saving the rubber cups. Most hydraulic cylinders are sleeved with a brass alloy, not just brass.

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.

Tried this to, the lines I received for a 39 Plymouth P8 were not the lines I needed. A few would work but the ones I received that were labeled as front was not long enough. Also they made the line going from the rear axle along the frame to the front two pieces. Had a connection and I don't think that's necessary. Also the short piece from the master cylinder to the brass junction was to short.

Got into this today. The lines I got were from Old Time Parts. Started with the line from the M/C to the rear rubber hose and found the longest tube sent was way short. Called and the said that to keep shipping cost low they shipped one 50" line and a 12" with coupling for the rear. I measured the line I took off the car and it was 6' 10 1/4" so what the sent was still short. They are sending me a 24" tube to use.

What this tells me is that they have many pre-manufactured tube with couplings and use approximate lengths to fit multiple cars, not custome done for year make and model. I am OK with that but put out that I now have to wait for another part to ship rather than getting through with this project while I have time off from work. Just hope that I do not run into any more delays for wrong lengths.

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As the old saying goes if you want the job done right do it yourself. Cutting tubing to length, making double flares, and bending to fit is not a difficult job. Why does everyone want to farm this out? Buy quality tools and do the job yourself. You will most likely spend less money and once you buy the tools you will have them for life.

 

flaring_tool_1.jpg

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