Hey everyone..
Does anyone out there know a strategy on how to take off extremely rusted brake lines. This morning I went to start my truck and instead of pushing down the clutch, I acidentally pushed the brake pedal. I've done this accidentally once or twice before, but this time when I did it I heard a "squishhhhh" sound and the pedal went about 3/4 of the way to the floor. When i looked under the front of the truck I saw fluid dripping from behind the drivers-side front tire. I get under the truck and see that the fluid is coming from the line that goes from the drivers side front tire to the passenger's side. The worst part about it is that where the line is screwed on the driver's side, the bolt is completly rusted. I spent about an hour trying to loosen the bolt but couldnt budge the friggin thing. Does anyone know anything that i could use to get this loose? I really really dont want to have to take it to a shop, since right now I'm basically broke. Any help at all is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

-Dave

 

After doing some extensive googling, i found something that sounded like it might work. I've seen this stuff before, but never actually used any myself, and my question now is, do you think that this stuff would actually work? The bolt that i need to get off is pretty well rusted on... Let me know what you guys think.

Dave

 

PB blaster is good stuff.

Also I suggest getting a cheap set of line wrenches. Should make the difference.

Adrianspeeder

 

Same thing happened to me. Lucky for you you werent out driving around like I was. Check the other lines as well while you're at it.

Yes, PB blaster will work wonders. I think the easiest way is to snap off the old line completely so you can get a socket wrench on the fitting. Or a pair of vise grips as it will likely round off on you anyway.

 

Thanks guys! Tomorrow when the stores open up again I'll buy some of that PB blaster and and dig out the vise grips and go to work on her. I'll let ya know how it turns out.

-Dave

 

Hey everyone.. I figured i'd let you guys know that i got the front brake line off, and I also discovered that the rear brake line was leaking too. I got that one off too and now I have one last question about this. I need to know how much brake line to get from Carquest, and also what the sizes are. The lines that I took off are the ones that go from the driver's side front tire to the passenger side front tire, and the line that goes from the drivers side rear tire into the passenger side rear tire. I've never done brake stuff myself, so I'm a little lost right now, and I dont want to go into Carquest looking like an idiot, so any help at all is greatly appreciated!

-Dave

 

Just take the old lines with you and match them up.

I'd ordered prebent ones from LMC, haven't installed them yet though. Stainless costs a bit more but in salt city it's a good investment.

 

The problem about taking them in is that there each in about 4 twisted pieces, thats probably what i'll end up doing, tho. I called up carquest and asked them if they had prebent ones or if you had to order them by length/size. They said that theres no way for them to look it up and that you have to have the size and length and whether its flared(?) or something like that. If I just get like straight line, i'm afraid that i'll end up snapping it if i have to bend it myself. But i dunno.. I guess i'll figure it out tomorrow. Any more input is appreciated.

--Dave

 

Bringing in the beaten and broken stubby ends should be enough to get tube and fitting size from, yes they should be flared. Buy a tubing bender, they're pretty cheap, fine tune by hand- don't kink the lines! Guesstimate the length, I wound up with a few extra bends to take up slack in mine. If you dare, you can buy a flaring tool and cut the lines to length and re flare them. I've never been able to do it the few times I've tried.

If you wnat a clean look, do a hack job with AutoZone stuff to get you through until pre-bent ones can be mail ordered. If you haven't already- I'd replace the rubber lines to the rear axle & front calipers, they're probably not in the best shape either.

 

Hey everyone, I figured that I'd let you all know whats happened since my last post. I went and bought some PB blaster and with a few sprays and some vice grips it was pretty easy to remove the old rusted fittings. I got both the front and rear lines off and took them to carquest and bought what I needed. I got them home and put em' on fairly easily. After I got them on I saw that I now have another leaky line!!!!! I got pretty frustrated so I've let it sit in my driveway for the past few days. I went out to it today and decided that I might as well take off the leaky line and I'll take it into carquest tomorrow to get a new one. The line that is bad this time is the one that goes from the master cylinder down to the drivers side front tire. It's not the one that's directly connected to the MC, its the one that's connected to the very end of the spiral tubing that comes from the MC.
There is one difference about this piece of tubing from the other's that I bought... it has a different fitting on one end of it. I doubt that Carquest has this, and I need to know if I can order it from Ford or if there's a website that would have it. Responses are greatly appreciated!!

-Dave