I've been trying to replace the 60 inch brake line on my 79 RX7. This line connects the rear wheel cylinders (it has drum brakes in the back). I have ordered the brake line from a couple of places, but after much pain and research I've determined that the fittings on it are for the later RX7 - they apparently have a 1.00 mm pitch. The wheel cylinders for the 1979 RX7 should take a 1.25 mm pitch. The result is, the fitting will only turn about a half turn by hand and then stop - forcing it to turn further screws up the threads on the wheel cylinder, as I have found by experience.

I think I need an adapter that will connect 1.00 mm pitch to 1.25 pitch, or, barring that, some 1.25 pitch fittings that I can put on the brake line. Does anybody know a good supplier for these? Or a supplier that can sell me a brake line that has the 1.25 mm pitch fittings? Or is there some other solution?

 

I am not sure where you might find an adapter. A couple ideas:

If your old fittings are salvagable, then you can take them off and put them on the new lines using tubing cutter and a flare tool. However, there might not be enough extra length on the line to compensate after you cut off the original flare.

Alternatively, is it feasible to change to the later model wheel cylinders so the line you have fits? I am not sure if there are physical differences between the various years of wheel cylinders.

Finally, can you rethread the existing master cylinders to accept the new fittings? It might be a bit tricky to do it in a manner that is leak-proof.

Also, where did you buy your new brake lines? I need to replace the rear axle lines on my '85, and was hoping to find a place that made them pre-bent to my needs before having to bend my own.

 

If I'm not mistaken, the drum brakes with wheel cylinders were only on the 79 and 80 models. After that, they went with rear disk brakes. I got my brake lines at Autozone online and Victoria British - both were straight lines. I bent them with a bending tool, which turned out to be pretty easy. The deal with the fittings has been a real bear. Unfortunately, one of the original fittings had cracked so I can't use them.

 

disc were only an option on the '81 - '85's, but the drums do have a different pitch than they did in the '79 '80 cars.

They're adapters out there for this, ask to look threw the adapter bins at auto zone or advance. A less likly place, but still possible, would be lowes/home depot or the local mom/pop hardware store (if they're any left where you live).

 

Racing Beat or Mazdatrix has have the adapters, iirc.