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Brake line rant, sort of...

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TR6oldtimer

TR6oldtimer

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Well, I finally got around to installing the new steel brake lines, and gas and vapor recovery lines to the back of the car. Everything was going well. The lines on the trailing arms, while a pain to bend, finally fit well. The line over the differential was a little tough, but was finally fine. All these lines were cut to the correct length. But then came the line that runs along the frame forward, and from the frame up to the PDWA. These lines are each 1 inch longer then the original. While I guess longer is better the shorter, and I should have measured before bending, I am a little ticked off.

I am not sure who to kick in the behind, me or the vendor, but I really am getting tired of doing things twice, especially when working with steel brake lines.

End of minor vent.
 
I wish I had that extra inch a several years ago when the replacement line cracked at the flare. It's fun to lose brakes in a congested area. It was fixable, but didn't make for confident driving.
I was heading to a Triumph friend's house to help him with his car. We ended up working on mine, as it seemed we did every time that car got near his home.
After that day, the car was not welcome in his driveway(much less my own).
Brake lines can be such a bear. Dealing with lengths, burs, corrosion, etc. Sort of like u joints, when you're done, you don't feel like you accomplished anything, you're just happy it finished.
 
I know that it was not received well by some a while back when I suggested it, (this was not by you Ray) but this is why I ordered mine from Dave at TRF in the pre-bent condition. I didn't want to deal with the flaring aspect, although I still have my double flaring tool set and when I read that there might be other style flares, I figured that it wasn't worth my efforts in the event that I would have screwed one up, or put a kink in one. I did plenty of both, years ago, when I was decent at doing this stuff for a living.

In any event, it cost me about $35 to have all of the lines bent to the exact form and they were flared and ready to go. They all fit perfectly with no additional tweaking required. It was worth it for me, IMHO.

And this doesn't qualify for even mini rant status. More of a frustrated observation.
 
Brosky said:
In any event, it cost me about $35 to have all of the lines bent to the exact form and they were flared and ready to go. They all fit perfectly with no additional tweaking required. It was worth it for me, IMHO.
Click to expand...

For $35 that is a good deal. Did you have Dave at TRF bend them or was it a local shop that bent them for you?
 
Dave does it before they are shipped. TRF got a set of the original jigs and after they make them to length and flare them, he bends the lines to shape for the extra $$$.
 
I'll have to check with him, I wonder if he has the jigs for a TR3A. A little extra to have them pre-bent would be great. The brake lines are on my list of things That I'd like to do before I start any real long distance driving. With a nearly 50 year old car who knows when or if the lines have ever been replaced? Brakes are one of those things that I'd rather not find out on the road that the pipes need replacing.
 
Rich,

I think that he charges $5.00 per line for the service and I thought that they had jigs for all of the Triumphs.

I remember throwing all of that stuff away when the dealership that I worked at dropped the British Leyland lines back in 1970. We kept servicing the cars and traded a lot of used ones, but all of those beautiful special tools and fixtures just went in the metal scrap bin back around 1978.

Yeah, all of the rear end tools too.

Sigh..................
 
Paul -

And if you had the tranny tool that can pull the circlip off the mainshaft, don't tell me you threw it away, it'll just be too painful!

As to brake lines, we need to suggest to Mr Runyan to advertise that more, I think he'd get a lot more brake line related business.

Randy
 
Randy,

The dealership started selling Triumphs in 1953. By the late 60's the Olds Cutlass sales were going through the roof and Jeep and AMC were moving hundreds of cars a year. Even the Renaults and Peugeots were taking off like crazy and B/L was getting stupid with their dealers, so many just dropped them.

So to answer your question with honesty, yes, every Triumph factory tool from 1953 until 1969 was trashed. Well, at least the techs who asked for them were allowed to take them home and keep as part of a giant clean up and remodeling effort. By that time, nearly all of the techs got rid of B/L cars and were driving American iron and R17's or hopped up R4's and R15's. The American iron got parked during the gas shortage, but within two years, the nightly drags were back on again.
 
Try putting a little S bend in a convient place to take up the extra length.
 
bgbassplyr said:
Try putting a little S bend in a convient place to take up the extra length.
Click to expand...

Thanks for the suggestion, I have already done a similar thing. I was just aggravated, more at myself then the vendor, for not having checked the length before I started bending. After all the years I have spent on this planet, I guess I have yet to learn not to take anything for granted.
 
I have all the "specialty tools" from the Alfa/Lotus shop I sold from. Not because I'm smart or cagey, but because I had THE CARS they would benefit.


...I'm sooo selfish sometimes. :jester:
 
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