Different sized fittings on brake line?

kc0hwi · Oct 29, 2007

I've spent most of the last 4 evenings working on my rear drum brakes. It seemed all the fittings for the hard lines were frozen so I ended up cutting the lines and buying a new pre-flared 3/16" line with the ends. However, it seems that the end that screws into the wheel cylinder is 1/4" and the other end that screws into the soft hose with the splitter at the middle of the rear axle is a smaller diameter fitting. Is this normal?

jlloyd · Oct 29, 2007

Yes it is.I had to go to a brake place and buy adapters,Jim

kc0hwi · Oct 29, 2007

Hmm, went back to O'Reilly's for the 5th time and they gave me a 3/16 x 1/4 adapter. Hopefully that will settle things, thanks.

cargs · Jan 26, 2008

kc0hwi said:
Hmm, went back to O'Reilly's for the 5th time and they gave me a 3/16 x 1/4 adapter. Hopefully that will settle things, thanks.

was that a 3/16 male to 1/4 female or the other way around? i.e. did you replace the 3/16 line with a 1/4 line and put the fitting at the T on the pumpkin, or did you replace with 3/16 line and put the adpater at the wheel cylinder?

anyone have a pic of it. i'm running into the same problem. i twisted the fitting of the line at the wheel cylinder trying to remove it. the fitting was frozen to the line.

anyone have a pic of the adapter fitting?

thanks,

metalmacguyver · Jan 26, 2008

i redid the back half of my brakes on both of my rangers and both times i had to deal with that stupid fitting issue. what i finally did was get the correct size fittings, 25' of brake line, the flareing tool and just skipped the whole adaptor fitting thing.

cargs · Jan 26, 2008

thats what i would like to do. but my local parts stores do not have the correct fitting.

i am going to check out some of the local brake/muffler shops to see if they have the right part.

once i get it going again, i am going to replace the hard lines with stainless, and stainless fittings.

cargs · Feb 5, 2008

I finally found the correct fittings for the wheel cylinders. All the big local stores did not have them. i had to go to a independent small parts store to find them.

here is the info on the wheel cylinder fittings.
http://www.fmsiinc.com/brake-line-fittings.htm

Scroll down to about 1/2 way.
Oversize Steel Tube Nuts - 3022 3/16" tube 7/16" - 24 thread (red)

i replaced everything on the rear end.
shoes, hardware, wheel cylinders, hard lines, flex line, ebrake cables.

now my rear brakes actually work well!

thanks to those who helped.

coleman · Jun 4, 2009

Just went thru this problem when I replaced the wheel cylinders on my '93 ranger. WTF!! Why would they make the fitting going into the wheel cylinder 1/4", and the rest of the brake lines 3/16? Makes no sense to me. What a PITA!! For those of you in Canada, I finally found the fittings at NAPA, to make it work.

Jason · Jun 4, 2009

The use the different fitting sizes so the trained monkeys at assembly can orient them faster on the assembly line.

AllanD · Jun 4, 2009

There's another advantage... the larger diameter the nut is, the less
easy it is to round off the corners of the hex on the nut.

AD

Jason · Jun 4, 2009

AllanD said:
There's another advantage... the larger diameter the nut is, the less
easy it is to round off the corners of the hex on the nut.

AD

True.

appletonbill · Jun 13, 2009

AllanD said:
There's another advantage... the larger diameter the nut is, the less
easy it is to round off the corners of the hex on the nut.

AD

Also, use PB blaster and a flare wrench for brake lines.

snoopdoggie · Jun 20, 2009

Advance Stores here carry the lines with different size fittings on them. I found this out only after buying lines and adapters of course.

Different sized fittings on brake line?

New Member

New Member

New Member

New Member

Yeah, I built that.

New Member

New Member

New Member

New Member

TRS Technical Staff

New Member

New Member

New Member

Sponsored Ad

Sponsored Ad

Today's birthdays

Member & Vendor Upgrades

Truck of The Month

Recently Featured

Follow TRS On Instagram

TRS Events

25th Anniversary Sponsors

Check Out The TRS Store

Sponsored Ad

Sponsored Ad

Sponsored Ad

Amazon Deals