It's been an interesting weekend.
My brake lines came in:
These are the lines I didn't need, but which came in the kit. When I took this picture, the line I needed was in the car. Stainless steel, pre-bent.
First annoyance: the long line (which goes to the passenger front brake) has what they call "shipping bends", which is why the master cylinder end and caliper end are so close. Supposedly, these bends are identified by stickers. I don't see such stickers. The one sticker that's there is basically the part number, which is also on the driver's side line that didn't have shipping bends.
I fought with the line and the car with the usual drama. The caliper side fitting for the old line was rust-welded to the hose, so I ended up cutting it off with a cutoff wheel and replaced the brake hose as well. Eventually, though, I got it all together. The bleeder valve on the caliper wasn't even stuck, despite not having a cap. And then, pressing down the brake pedal to start things moving, I hear squirting under the hood by the master cylinder.
What could have possibly gone wrong?
Yup. Stripped. You're probably asking yourself, "What about the end the fitting screws onto? Did he just destroy that new brake hose?" Nope--I wish. I destroyed the master cylinder end, which is equally stripped out.
Nuts. Time to order a new master cylinder.
That ordered, it was time to see if I could salvage this line. Cutting off the flare should be no problem, but can I re-flare the end afterwards? Survey says "nope, not without an expensive flaring tool." So, rather than go that route, I bought some generic 3/16" steel brake line and rented a flaring tool.
As I type this, the line is cut, bent, flared, and test fitted, and seems ready to go. The master cylinder is also loose, awaiting the delivery person tomorrow. And I have a few jugs of brake fluid. I've reviewed the instructions for bench bleeding, and apart from being a huge mess, doesn't seem too intimidating.
It is a bit frustrating that the fairly expensive kit I paid big bucks for is going to essentially be useless in the end. My fault, for sure. But I wish I had known how hard it was to re-flare stainless. Had I paid a little less money, this would have been fairly easy to fix. Oh, well; the two intermediate lines to the proportioning valve will be nice and shiny when it's all over. And, honestly, I bought the pre-bent lines because I didn't feel like learning how to bend and flare; now that I'm on the other side of that journey, I've learned something I didn't know before. So, there's a silver lining here.
And hopefully, the car will be driveable tomorrow. It needs to be; the kid's Honda has a serious problem that makes it essentially undriveable, so parts store runs and other errands have to be done at my wife's convenience. I was going to relegate the '89 back to "most unreliable car I own", but the Honda seems unwilling to give up that title. I hope that, in a few months, the Honda will be gone, a replacement will be in the driveway, and the '89 will be or have been subjected to the tender mercies of one body shop or the other for those frame rails.
My brake lines came in:
These are the lines I didn't need, but which came in the kit. When I took this picture, the line I needed was in the car. Stainless steel, pre-bent.
First annoyance: the long line (which goes to the passenger front brake) has what they call "shipping bends", which is why the master cylinder end and caliper end are so close. Supposedly, these bends are identified by stickers. I don't see such stickers. The one sticker that's there is basically the part number, which is also on the driver's side line that didn't have shipping bends.
I fought with the line and the car with the usual drama. The caliper side fitting for the old line was rust-welded to the hose, so I ended up cutting it off with a cutoff wheel and replaced the brake hose as well. Eventually, though, I got it all together. The bleeder valve on the caliper wasn't even stuck, despite not having a cap. And then, pressing down the brake pedal to start things moving, I hear squirting under the hood by the master cylinder.
What could have possibly gone wrong?
Yup. Stripped. You're probably asking yourself, "What about the end the fitting screws onto? Did he just destroy that new brake hose?" Nope--I wish. I destroyed the master cylinder end, which is equally stripped out.
Nuts. Time to order a new master cylinder.
That ordered, it was time to see if I could salvage this line. Cutting off the flare should be no problem, but can I re-flare the end afterwards? Survey says "nope, not without an expensive flaring tool." So, rather than go that route, I bought some generic 3/16" steel brake line and rented a flaring tool.
As I type this, the line is cut, bent, flared, and test fitted, and seems ready to go. The master cylinder is also loose, awaiting the delivery person tomorrow. And I have a few jugs of brake fluid. I've reviewed the instructions for bench bleeding, and apart from being a huge mess, doesn't seem too intimidating.
It is a bit frustrating that the fairly expensive kit I paid big bucks for is going to essentially be useless in the end. My fault, for sure. But I wish I had known how hard it was to re-flare stainless. Had I paid a little less money, this would have been fairly easy to fix. Oh, well; the two intermediate lines to the proportioning valve will be nice and shiny when it's all over. And, honestly, I bought the pre-bent lines because I didn't feel like learning how to bend and flare; now that I'm on the other side of that journey, I've learned something I didn't know before. So, there's a silver lining here.
And hopefully, the car will be driveable tomorrow. It needs to be; the kid's Honda has a serious problem that makes it essentially undriveable, so parts store runs and other errands have to be done at my wife's convenience. I was going to relegate the '89 back to "most unreliable car I own", but the Honda seems unwilling to give up that title. I hope that, in a few months, the Honda will be gone, a replacement will be in the driveway, and the '89 will be or have been subjected to the tender mercies of one body shop or the other for those frame rails.