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General Tech Check those brake hoses!

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drooartz

drooartz

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Just a little reminder to check your brake hoses. I didn't know when the hoses on my new GT had last been changed, so I went in to replace them all. Fronts didn't look too bad on the outside, but you never can tell so they got replaced. Then I moved to the rear hose.

Not good!

Wound up taking a grinder and a quite a few swear words to get the rear hose off -- the nut was just not going to budge. Nothing a Dremel can't remove. Upon inspection the outside covering was cracked. Scary stuff indeed.

So check those hoses, folks. They're easy to replace, nice cheap safety insurance.

brakehose.jpg
 
Go Drew! They can even look FINE on the outside and fail on the I.D.

If they've been on the car for five years or you have no idea HOW long, ditch 'em and get new ones.
 
Drew, Make sure you check the flex fuel hose coming from the gas tank, I had one go bad and the pump was sucking air. Just a thought. PJ
 
That too.
 
Fuel lines need a bit of attention, once the axle is out I'll have some room. Some PO put in a Facet and it's poorly mounted with some odd runs of fuel line.
 
I hate to be the one to say this but if the brake hose is in that condition the much less fun to change clutch hose might not be far behind.
 
It's on my list, Stewart. Hoping to make it until fall if possible, then I can try and tackle that job. I've heard it's not all that much fun...
 
It's one of those jobs where if the engine's out it's a 45 second job. With the engine in much much longer and thats without having to deal with an out of place steering shaft.
 
While turning on an off ramp I pressed the brake down only to get nothing all the way to the floor. Earlier that day was perfect. Good thing I had recently replaced the parking brake cable. The small brass t behind the battery box and crusted up and popped apart. Here I thought replacing all the rubber hoses had me safe. :grin:
 
The lines on my TD were pretty bad, too. This seems to be one of those things that POs often don't take care of, even though old rubber lines are a perpetual source of problems. Even stranger in my case, as the car clearly had received a full brake job--four wheels, new shoes, new wheel cylinders, even a rebuilt master cylinder.

Anyway, it's nothing a few new parts, cleaning, and paint can't fix.
 

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I track my MGA and installed steel braided lines. My rubber hoses still looked good and functioned well, but were probably about 10 years old. Cheap insurance.
 
Changing the hoses isn't much fun and can be sometimes difficult if they have been on for a while or are rusted. I suspect that's why I see so many customers cars needing the hoses changed. I actually cut a new hose in half and the old nasty one to compare the bores, the new hose was about .080", while the old hose, well I managed to get a fine needle into the bore !
So change those hoses, and stay away from the stainless hoses, they cost too much and you cant tell how old they are until they fail!

www.britishcarmechanic.com
 
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