Front Brake Line Replacement

[swissarmychainsaw]

Gang,
I have a 1976 4x4 and I'm putting the Off road design longer steel brake lines on (front and rear).

I have done this before on an old truck and I remember it was a complete PITA!
The rubber hose to steel hose joint at the frame was nearly impossible to get off, and I remember taking a grinder to it!
I used penetrating oil, heat and nothing worked so I just cut it off (retaining the steel line coupling)

I want to make this easier and I'm looking for suggestions.
Should I:
1.) Cut the steel brake line near the junction with rubber line, and just re-flare it? This seems like a pretty easy solution

2.) Remove the rubber line AND the steel line. This means removing from the proportioning valve.

3.) Replace all of it, and put in a NEW proportioning valve and steel lines?

Any tips would be appreciated!

[Nachos82]

I went option 3 on mine and did it all at once. I got the prop valve from Carolina Classic Trucks and the stainless lines from Inline Tube.

Besides some pains in running the line in the hard to get spots, it wasn't super tough overall. I would do it this way every time if in the same position again.

[mongocanfly]

yep....replace it all

[swissarmychainsaw]

Originally Posted by Nachos82

I went option 3 on mine and did it all at once. I got the prop valve from Carolina Classic Trucks and the stainless lines from Inline Tube.

Besides some pains in running the line in the hard to get spots, it wasn't super tough overall. I would do it this way every time if in the same position again.

Thanks! I assume you bought bendable line and just flared it as needed?
Or did you buy "pre-bent" stainless line?

[swissarmychainsaw]

Should I use an adjustable proportioning valve or just a stock replacement?
Brakes are stock with disk/drum.

[mongocanfly]

Just get a prop valve for disc/drum...no need for adj...
I get my brake line from o'Reilly...you can buy it in different lengths preflared....I get it longer than needed and then cut and flare it to size

[Dead Parrot]

Having fought the brake fitting battle years ago, when my truck last needed brake line replacement, I took it to a good shop and let them have the fun. The shop was walking distance from the place I worked at the time. Drop truck off in morning, nice walk to work, nice walk back in the evening, wrote check, drove home with brakes that worked the best they had in years.

[Nachos82]

I bought the pre-bent kit from Inline Tube. There are tough points using the fully bent stuff as you can imagine. Up in the passenger side frame around the starter area is the worst. Other than that, it isn't really much trouble besides a little tweaking and putting some clamps in some places.

If I had a good flare tool and didn't care about looks, I would probably run that NiCopp line so it was less pain in the butt dealing with the pre bends.

[kipps]

Originally Posted by Nachos82

I bought the pre-bent kit from Inline Tube. There are tough points using the fully bent stuff as you can imagine. Up in the passenger side frame around the starter area is the worst. Other than that, it isn't really much trouble besides a little tweaking and putting some clamps in some places.

If I had a good flare tool and didn't care about looks, I would probably run that NiCopp line so it was less pain in the butt dealing with the pre bends.

My engine/transmission/exhaust is out of the truck at the moment. Would this practically eliminate any difficulty installing a pre-bent kit?

What did you use to secure the brake lines along the chassis?

If I buy the hoses and line kit from Inline Tube, will that include everything I need, or are there more fittings/brackets between the lines and front hoses that I'll need to get?

Also, this is down the road a bit(I'll get it running first), but I'll need practically everything on the parking brake system. Are there any nice kits that someone could recommend?

[Nachos82]

Oh heck, you won't have any issues doing pre-bent then. If I remember right, the inline kit didn't come with frame clips for the line. I ordered part # 30-1726 from LMC and I also had some original frame clips and bolts that I reused.

If I had planned it better, I would have ordered individual clip/clamps of specific sizes. I didn't know what sizes I needed and had to move in less than a month when I did mine, so I just got the LMC kit. Between the originals I had and the LMC kit, I had enough to get things fastened down. If it wasn't for my originals, I wouldn't have had enough clips.

The kit I got from inline has one part number covering the metal lines and another part number for the stainless flex hoses off the calipers and rear differential mount. Mine is an 82 and the descriptions appear to be 81-87 metal & 79-87 hose, so I can't help you with those part numbers if you are 76.