Busted brake hard line

[Evil D]

I'm gonna be replacing one of the hard brake lines on my car today...any details i should know about before hand (aside from it being a PITA)? What length do i need? I can't tell yet which side it goes to. There are 4 lines all together under the driver's seat...why 4?

(crap i keep forgetting about the repair section..)

[bravekozak]

2 lines

The two small tubes are the brake lines. The other larger ones are the fuel and fuel return lines.
The lines curve through the rear engine mount. You need a hoist if you are going to replace the entire line.
It would be a lot easier just to replace the broken section. That's the reason I always cut out the brass junction block near the gas tank on every junkyard Festiva that I see. It only takes two quick snips. They are expensive.

[Evil D]

Forgive me cause i know jack crap about doing brakes...never even had to fool with them on my Mustang. I saw there are some brass couplers but they say not for brakes on them...what do i need to look for to replace just the section that's bad? That's what i'd rather do anyways as long as the end result is safe and reliable.

[Festy46]

Forgive me cause i know jack crap about doing brakes...never even had to fool with them on my Mustang. I saw there are some brass couplers but they say not for brakes on them

The brass couplers you are talking about are probably compression ball couplers which is correct that they should not be used to splice brake lines. There are couplings that you can use, but they are for flared tubing like your brake line has. If your brake line is leaking, it is probably because it rusted. Your best bet is to replace the whole line. You probably won't be able to to get a brake line that is pre-fabricated that will be long enough to go the entire distance. If you have never worked with steel brake lines, I wouldn't recommend buying bulk steel tubing and making your own. Measure the total distance of brake line you need and then go to the auto parts and buy a combination of different lengths that will give you your required length. Get enough couplers to splice all the pieces together.

And one other thing, make sure you tell the auto parts you want metric brake lines and couplings. If you don't own a line wrench that will fit the flared tubing fittings, I would highly recommend getting one and tighten the "crap" out of each splice you have. When you finish and have bled the brakes, have someone push on the brakes like they were doing a panic stop and hold the pedal there. Get under the car and check each connection to be sure you don't have any leaks.

[WmWatt]

I did my brake lines and wrote up what I did at www.ag384bn.bravehost.com/Cars.htm

[Evil D]

Turns out there's 5 lines...and only one of them looks bigger than the other two but i think i can tell which one is leaking. I ended up calling it quits 5 minutes into it this morning..i'm coming down with something and feel terrible.

About the line going through the engine mount...is there a way i can remove the old one in pieces and route the new one a different way so i don't have to take the mount off?

[Festy46]

I didn't try to replace the line in it's original location. Once I knew which one was leaking, I took a pair of wire cutting pliers and cut it off near the bottom of the firewall and removed the cut piece from the proportioning valve. I left the rest of the line where it was until I got to the back of the car where I cut it off again by the back wheels. I re-routed the new line down around the steering rack and then back under the car next to the frame rail. I cut short pieces (about 2") of 3/16 vacuum hose, split them open and slipped them over the brake line and then attached the brake line to the under side of the car body with clamps like in the picture below placed over the vacuum hose. I used pop rivets to attach the clamps to the body. When you drill a hole for the clamp, be careful to just drill through the metal floor. Don't push so hard on the drill that you go all the way up through your carpet. Make sure you don't have the line rubbing (metal to metal) against any part of your new route for the line. It saves a lot of grief to re-rout it rather than replace it exactly where the original was.

[wirebrain]

Just a FYI, You might want to save yourself a headache later and replace all 5 lines at once. I just got a Festiva from Michigan, owner said it had a brake line busted. so I towed it home with my sick Festiva and a home made tow bar. Every other hard line on it had been replaced in the past except the 5 that run the length of the car. After replacing the broken brake line......then the other brake line......the gas lines started to leak..... so every thing ended up getting replaced fun... fun... fun. luckly I only had it back together all the way once, before the other leaks were discovered and they were not leaking till I disturbed them while replacing the first line. Just a FYI on the Compression line couplers that say not for brake line use. They did not used to be labeled that way. Many times in my 30 years of Playing with cars I have used these for shortening brake lines as well as cutting out bad sections and never had a problem. I'm not saying you should try it...gust saying it works for me.

[WmWatt]

IN didn't remove the engine mount. Just worked the line down where the original was. It's a pain but it went through. I think at the factory they must put the brake line on the body first, then screw everything else on over top.

[Evil D]

A Festiva towing a Festiva...that has to be a sight to behold.

I too have used those compression fittings...i used to have a Bronco II that busted a line right as i was coming to a stop at the end of an expressway off ramp coming down to a stop light..it busted right as i was trying to stop and i had to dodge my way through 4 lanes of cross traffic with no brakes (then i had to change my undies). I used the compression fittings...then someone scolded me for it because they're not for brake use.

I'm half tempted to use them and then cover the whole thing with JB Weld...lol.

[Festy46]

If you try using the compression fittings here in PA, you would have to hide them good. If the PA state inspection mechanic sees them, he won't pass the car. A friend of mine tried it and got caught and had to replace it.