I hate brakes on old rusty trucks

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I learned my lesson with brake lines a long time ago. My first Ranger blew a rear line, I replaced it, want to say I use pre-made steel line. Then another line blew, want to say at that point I was making my own steel lines. Then I lost the first line I had replaced about 5 hours from home and all of my tools. Was so mad about what it took to get home that I bought stainless line and did all of the hard line in stainless. Then Ni-Copper become a thing. Both Bronco IIs, my green Ranger and my F-150 are all done in Ni-Cop. The dump truck will be before it’s on the road again. I also upgraded to a lever style flaring tool. Worth every penny, wish I had bought one 15 years ago.

 

[tw205]

I learned my lesson with brake lines a long time ago. My first Ranger blew a rear line, I replaced it, want to say I use pre-made steel line. Then another line blew, want to say at that point I was making my own steel lines. Then I lost the first line I had replaced about 5 hours from home and all of my tools. Was so mad about what it took to get home that I bought stainless line and did all of the hard line in stainless. Then Ni-Copper become a thing. Both Bronco IIs, my green Ranger and my F-150 are all done in Ni-Cop. The dump truck will be before it’s on the road again. I also upgraded to a lever style flaring tool. Worth every penny, wish I had bought one 15 years ago.

I like the Ni-Cop. Makes things so much easier. I do some of my own double flares if needed.
I’ve never seen a lever style. I’ll have to check that out.
My frame off BII will be getting all stainless pre bent lines. B G has then on their site.

 

[Shran]

Is it common to have to replace brake lines up north? That's a foreign thing to me down here in the south. I (knock on wood) can't recall anyone I know having to replace a hard line.

I've only had to do the one and oddly enough my truck was originally from AZ (although I have no idea how long it's been here.) My rule of thumb is that vehicles rust a lot faster east of the Missouri River and north of AR/TN/NC. West and south of that are better. Some of the cleanest trucks I've worked on came from Oklahoma.

They use a fair bit of salt on the roads in western South Dakota where I'm at but not like other places. I wish they didn't use any but we had a couple storms last winter that started out as freezing rain and turned to snow, and they didn't salt anything...it was a mess, wrecks everywhere.

 

[scotts90ranger]

Is it common to have to replace brake lines up north? That's a foreign thing to me down here in the south. I (knock on wood) can't recall anyone I know having to replace a hard line.

I was going to say something similar but couldn't come up with a smart ass reply last night... around here it's hard enough to even find hard brake line parts because they never go bad... Here if there's brake line rust it's all at the calipers or wheel cylinders where the bleeders shear off when you go to bleed them or change them so ya gotta put on a new nut or something at the worst...

 

[Snoranger]

Is it common to have to replace brake lines up north? That's a foreign thing to me down here in the south. I (knock on wood) can't recall anyone I know having to replace a hard line.

We replace vehicles in our fleet (nothing older than 2000) because the frames rot out... brakes lines don’t stand a chance around here.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I like the Ni-Cop. Makes things so much easier. I do some of my own double flares if needed.
I’ve never seen a lever style. I’ll have to check that out.
My frame off BII will be getting all stainless pre bent lines. B G has then on their site.

https://www.eastwood.com/professional-brake-tubing-flaring-tool.html

That is what I have. Going to get the 37* stuff for it for doing -AN line too. Long as you cut the line square and de-burr it, it will make flares that look like the pre-made line from the store. I tried it out originally on some steel line I had laying around that has a coating on it, the regular flare tool always destroyed the coating, which of course started rust, but this didn’t harm the coating at all. I have even used it to bulge line that I was sliding rubber hose over.

 

[Roert42]

https://www.eastwood.com/professional-brake-tubing-flaring-tool.html

That is what I have. Going to get the 37* stuff for it for doing -AN line too. Long as you cut the line square and de-burr it, it will make flares that look like the pre-made line from the store. I tried it out originally on some steel line I had laying around that has a coating on it, the regular flare tool always destroyed the coating, which of course started rust, but this didn’t harm the coating at all. I have even used it to bulge line that I was sliding rubber hose over.

I was just looking at that set yesterday. I was hesitant to buy it because I had never seen one like that, good to see there is some good reviews.

 

[19Walt93]

NH salts the roads so heavily that the pavement is white when it dries. Brake lines don't live long and for a while we had problems with porcupines chewing on the salt coated brake hoses. I've seen the fittings rot off the end of brake hoses. I pulled my 77 Mustang out of a barn that thankfully had a concrete floor in 1990, it had been there since 1983, and replaced all the brake lines because they looked a little crusty. It hasn't seen salt since then and the lines look like dusty new steel. Copper brake lines are illegal in NH.

 

[lil_Blue_Ford]

I was just looking at that set yesterday. I was hesitant to buy it because I had never seen one like that, good to see there is some good reviews.

The way it comes it will do single and double inverted flare as well as metric bubble flare. With a little practice you can bulge line with it for rubber hoses. Super easy to do flares though, no fooling around with pieces, just clamp and yank basically. Does have to be in a vice or something though. I’ve clamped it to things or in a vice and I made a 2” hitch adapter for mine. My mechanic buddy took one look at it and bought himself one. Haven’t tried stainless line in it, but I have worked with aluminum, Ni-cop and steel, does them all equally well.