I'm doing my GSL rear swap, 5spd swap, new clutch... in about a week or two. However, i dont trust the shady condition of the hard brake line under the car, and want to replace them while i'm at it so i have a bulletproof brake system (cause mine has always sucked).

has anyone done this, is there any place that sells the pre-formed lines, or will i have to buy tubing and bend it and flare it myself? Also, is it the / \ flare or the \_/ flare?

ugh, one little project turns into so much more. but it's all better in the end.

 

Yeah, the hard lines on my car are looking a little scary myself and with my sister nearly losing her life in an accident because of her hard lines failing I would like to replace mine sometime soon.

 

yeah, they're looking a little corroded, and if i'm gonna have new rotors, hawk pads, rebuilt calipers all around, and SS flexible lines, the only thing left in there thats not new is the hard lines.

so, feedback anyone?

 

I wanna do mine too! I know that autozone carries lengths of brake line that you can bend to any shape you want but I'm pretty sure the fittings on all of them are standard thread. Also, I've never seen a piece long enough to replace the one we're talking about here. Anyone else know, cause I'm stumped but I'd love to replace mine as well. I've been planning on doing it for some time now.

 

I did a little bit of online searching and came up with this site in Canada that apparently sells replacement metric brake lines. Take a look at it here.

http://www.fmsiinc.com/metric-brake.htm

I've tried using the Autozone "Japanese" brake line replacements but for some reason the threads are never right on the fittings. Maybe I bought the wrong size??? Anyone?

 

I cracked the code and firgured out the pitch on it. Well 79 atleast.. 2.5 i believe it is. Very hard to find.

 

I just replaced the hard lines on my 83 GSL. The lines sold by Autozone or Advance will work fine. Make sure they give you the japanese threaded lines. You will have to get your own flaring tool, or be very accurate with your measurements and buy just the lengths you need. They sell them in 60", 51", 40", and some smaller lengths that I can't remember at the moment. You will need Japanese unions (connects two male ends together). I was able to run the long line from the master cylinder to the rear end with a 60" and a 40". I had to put a little loop at the master cylinder to make up the difference. Hope this helps.

 

I did the brake line on the drum rear of my 7. Impossible to find pre-formed, but at Canadian Tire (a local part store) I found a 60" long straight brake line with "Japanese" fittings at either end. Already flared. That line was *exactly* the length to reach.. but I had to make some more conservative bends. Instead of nicely contouring the pumpkin, it forms a triangle with the top of the pumpkin as it's point.

They're not too hard to bend, just take your time. They're less than ten bucks each. Expect to crimp your first one. That's the one you learn on. If you even remotely think you've crimped it, get another one. Better safe than sorry with brakes.


My first line bent properly all the way to the LAST bend on the passenger's side.. then I crimped it.. two hours for the first one.. an hour for the second one.

The japanese fittings fit okay... they were a little tougher to get in, and for some reason required an imperial wrench to do it, but with not-too-much elbow grease (brute force) they went in.

Jon

 

Okay, so the thread is now a year and a half old.....

Can someone tell me what fittings are used in an SA? I've got to replace the hard lines in my RX-2, which are the same thread as SA fittings. I recall that SA and FB fittings are different, and it looks like "Japanese" fittings work on FBs. What do I ask for in order to get my fittings right?

 

best thing to do ... I had a set of old lines sitting around, cause i converted to ss braided line, took it in the auto parts store and made sure I could thread it on, which worked fine. My auto parts place loaned out the flaring tools for freee so i did that and bought a whole wack of lines, then returned what I didn't use of the line. Its really easy just bend and go. I was a little hesitant at first when i did mine, but you'll see how easy it it when you do it.

 

Here's a page that I put together as part of an overall work instruction for an '81 GS-to-'83 GSL rear end swap. Here's how I did mine, last weekend. Hope it helps!
(japanese brake line part numbers used are purchased from: BlackDragonAuto.com #65-405 (51”) & #65-403 (30”) PRE-FLARED! No flare tool needed!)

 

Here's a tip thats worked for me in the past, go out and buy 3/16" brake line with any fittings on them, you'll need a flaring tool and maybe a tubing bender.

Now, when you remove your old lines cut them and remove the fittings that are on the ends. Next get your new line cut the flares at the ends and remove whatever fittings they came with. Now you can place your old fittings on the new line and reflare the new tubing.

Its that simple, you now have a new line with the fittings that were originally installed in your car so they HAVE to fit! No more headaches about wondering if the thread on the fittings is correct.

 

Nice.. this is what I'm going to do

 

Well, my brake union (the distribution block), as well as 4 short pieces of tubing and all the fittings, is now gone, so I can't reuse fittings. Granted, I can go and rape an SA next time it pops up, but would like to use new hardware, anyway. Is threre a source for course metric fittings?

 

As long as one has the fittings for the calipers and drums, the rest of it can be worked around. I just parted out an 86 300ZX, it had a 3 port distribution block on the rear end. That could be used in place of the one on the 7. The Fittings can be salvaged from the proportioning valve or brake master, then new lines made up with them. Lines can have different style ends on them to match new replacement parts.

In the extreme, the brake system could be replaced with FB master and/or proportioning valve, and new lines run to the SA calipers and drums.

 

Replacing brake lines is cake, it just takes time to make it pretty. Especially easy on cars like RX-7s where you don't have to snake the lines under crossmembers or behind steering racks or work while hugging the engine because they all go to a distribution block tucked under the intake manifold of a transverse four-banger... Hardline replacement is rather common and frequent 'round these parts.

Many of the Japanese OEM's actually stock hardlines. Toyota and Mitsubishi sell "line racks" for like $200ish but it includes all brake and fuel lines from front to rear. Mazda sells lines individually for at least as far back as 1990.

As a rule, if you remove one, you will need to change 'em all, because if they're weak enough for one to break, the others are not far behind.

 

I replaced the hardlines on my donor GSL axle a few years ago and found that a cheap hardline bender ($10) was probably the best investment I made all summer. That sucker made shaping the lines a snap and prevented kinks. Don't even attempt to bend the hard lines without one, it just isn't worth it.

 

I never use benders, just go it by hand. Takes a lot less time than fiddling with a bender. You need to work a curve in with your thumbs, piece of cake.

1/4" and larger *is* easy to kink, though. But that's fuel-line territory...

 

Funny you should say that. I have to use a bender on the steel brake lines, but the 3/8" aluminum fuel lines I installed on the widebody, thumbs worked better. 3/8" steel lineson the other hand, would probably leave me with broken thumbs.

 

i purhased pre-flared lines, and used them... heres a link to some pics, you can see what i did with the extra line.http://www.cardomain.com/ride/2120199