New Brake Lines Question

[PatGalvin]

Hi All
I am fitting new brake lines purchased from Moss. Nice kit with all precut sections and fittings. Any ideas as to how to straighten the longer coiled brake lines? There must be some trick to this...

Pat

 

[PeterK]

Yes, there is a trick. Here's how I do it:

I use the cut expansion joint on my garage floor - you know, the slot cut in the concrete. Anyway, I place the roll of tubing on the floor in the crack. Holding the cut end of the tube down, and using slight pressure on the inside of the bottom of the roll, I simply unroll it away from the cut end following the groove in the floor. Once I get enough unrolled, I cut it to the length I need. Works great.

 

[Andrew Mace]

Key is to work against some hard surface. Same goes when bending them to proper shape before fitting them to the car. Dedicated bending tools are nice, but there's really no need. Odds are you already have the bending tools you need lying about, in the form of a glass soda bottle, wooden dowel or metal pipe, etc., etc. Some folks will fill the lines with salt or sand before bending, and that's ok, but I always worry about getting every bit of that stuff out of the line again. So long as you maintain pressure on whatever hard surface, you won't kink the line.

Worst case scenario: go to your FLAPS and buy the cheapest length of line they have, and practice bending it to "get the feel" for the job.

 

[TR3driver]

If these are the 'Cunifer' lines from Automec, they bend a whole lot easier than steel lines do! Using a hard surface is still a good idea, but not as required as with steel lines.

 

[Rhodyspit75]

To avoid kinking the brake line, pick up a few feet of #14 thhn solid wire at the local hardware or depot. Lube it with a little brake fluid and feed it into the line before you bend it. when you are done pull it out and use it again. You may need a larger size ( #12 or #10) depending on the id of your tubing but 14 worked just right on my Spitfire.

 

[GreenOne]

Trick of the piping trade: straighten it the best you can by hand then on a clean concrete floor lay it down and roll it with the ball of you foot (with shoes on) it will slap around at first but as you work your way down the length it will straighten up nicely.