"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
04/11/2017 at 12:00 • Filed to: wrenching, brakes, car repair, Blog
3
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"Urambo Tauro" (urambotauro)
04/11/2017 at 12:00 • Filed to: wrenching, brakes, car repair, Blog | 3
| 7 |
(Sorry, I didn’t take any pictures. Too busy wrenching. Here, have a file photo.)
Don’t ya just hate it when a repair has to be done twice ?
My father’s Lincoln Town Car (’97) was experiencing some brake fluid loss recently. But it wasn’t leaving any puddles... so I helped him investigate.
Well, he must have been really babying it on the road, because a forceful application of the brakes was all it took to reveal a leak by the LR wheel. Upon closer inspection, it was one of the hard lines.
(Again, not the actual car in question. Wrong color, even. But that red sure is sexy, isn’t it?)
It soon became clear that under its previous owner, most of the car’s brake lines had already been replaced with that green-coated (Poly-Armour?) steel tubing. Which is fine, except that they never bothered to remove the original stock tubing. They just cut off the last foot or so to make room to connect the new stuff.
Of course, this also means that they were unable to use the plastic retainer clips to hold the new line in place along the frame. Instead, they just routed them nearby, secured with zip-ties. Which, again, should have been fine, if only they had done something to keep the new lines from rubbing against each other ...
Yup, that’s how it sprung a leak. A couple of steel lines, chafing over time, severely shortening the life they would otherwise have had. Hell, they probably would have lasted as long as the car if done right.
(Here’s another pic I found online. Much better match of the car in question, right down to the grey trim at the bottom.)
So we got to work, pulling the damaged line out (somehow, one line took the brunt of the chafe-damage, and we were able to leave the other one alone). We also made sure to take the time to remove the original remnants, so that we could use the proper retainer clips. That’s when we noticed a
second
leak- the RF hard line, running under the engine. This one wasn’t chafing, though. It was the
one
original line still in service, the only one not yet replaced.
So now two lines had to be replaced, one because it finally succumbed to 20 years of salty Michigan roads, and the other because a shop got lazy.
We picked up some fittings, NiCopp tubing, and brake fluid from the local parts store, and spent the afternoon replacing lines. Bled all four corners, and luckily didn’t have to do anything special to bleed the ABS module. The end result- a good, firm pedal, much better braking, and zero leaks.
Sorry I didn’t take any pictures. If you want to see just how rusty brake lines tend to get around my neck o’ the woods, !!!error: Indecipherable SUB-paragraph formatting!!! :
!!! UNKNOWN CONTENT TYPE !!!
“NOT for use in Automotive Brake Line Systems.”
BTW, quick little anecdote:
The rear line was more-or-less L-shaped, running from the front to the rear, then across to the wheel on the other side. So to facilitate installation, we decided to make two straight-ish runs, and connect them with a union.
When we went to the local AutoZone for parts, the guy up front went in the back to gather my parts, and returned to the counter with a compression fitting .
He was aware that I was working on brake lines, and a compression fitting was his first instinct.
Chariotoflove
> Urambo Tauro
04/11/2017 at 12:09 |
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Reading is hard.
jimz
> Urambo Tauro
04/11/2017 at 12:12 |
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bleh.
in my experience, phantom brake fluid loss usually is from the master cylinder seals failing and letting fluid dribble into the brake booster.
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Urambo Tauro
> jimz
04/11/2017 at 12:16 |
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Yeah, that was my first thought, too. Apparently he’d been driving like that for a few weeks, and when he said “no puddles”, I decided to start my investigation under the hood.
RamblinRover Luxury-Yacht
> Urambo Tauro
04/11/2017 at 12:39 |
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I had to replace the rear line for the brakes on the Galaxie a week ago. It was still mostly okay, except it got twisted when I was trying to remove the dead rubber flex. It was ten whole feet long, and criss-crossed over the top of the frame several times and in one place was clamped on top, because apparently Ford installed them with the body off. DO NOT WANT.
shop-teacher
> Urambo Tauro
04/11/2017 at 13:05 |
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Did you back-hand the parts guy? Of course not, but you wanted to, right?
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Urambo Tauro
> shop-teacher
04/11/2017 at 13:20 |
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My tongue still hurts from biting it so hard. I’ve heard that some old-timers have had good luck with compression fittings, but it still bothers me that that was his go-to solution. Really, he should be offering the flare fittings first, and only selling compression fittings when a customer insists on it.
Bultaco's JMOD TownCar drives his pa to drinkin
> Urambo Tauro
04/12/2017 at 12:02 |
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I did my brakes about a year ago. New centric blanks, yellow stuff pads, Typ 200 fluid, new calipers (because the previous owner’s shop sheared off the bleeder valves, thanks). Worked great for a couple months, then one day I get in it, stick my foot on the brake before starting the car, and the pedal goes straight to the floor. Hmm that’s funny. Try a few more times, and swear I hear a spraying sound. Turns out one of the little rubber hydraulic lines that go from the hard lines to the caliper had cracked open. Friggin’ 5 dollar part that take 2 seconds to replace while I had everything off. Learned a lesson that day.