There are two brake line fittings on the master cylinder. One on each side. Are they both high pressure lines?? Does one go to the rear and one to the front? Please take a look at the pics and let me know

 

here's apic of the other side

 

other side

 

That's the high pressure line for the front brakes.

 

And that's the high pressure line for the rear brakes.

 

Thanks Max, you seem to know all the brake answers.

 

Yes, Max does know. Max also knows that the front goes to the front, and the back to the back See how one is in front of the other, albeit on different sides?

 

Well here's a question Max might know the answer to...

How do you properly torque the brake line fittings without overtightening? I've used flare wrenches in the past, but obviously there's no way to determine torque. A "crow foot" open end wrench could be attached to a torque wrench, if they made crow "feet" in 1/4" drive so that you could use a torque wrench rated in in-lbs. but I haven't looked into that yet. Any other suggestions?

 

Use your torque wrench to torque a nut to the same value recommended for the brake lines, being careful to hold the wrench the same distance from the fastener that you'll be using with the flare nut wrench. Then immediately apply the same torque to the brake line nut by feel.

Or just guess. Stop torquing when you feel the wrench start to give a little. That's what I did. If you have a rounded nut or a weak wrench, apply a vise-grip over the head of the flare nut wrench to hold it on tight.

-Max

 

Thanks Max.

 

Or you can buy flare nut sockets made by Snap On, or Koken (good luck finding a retailer for the latter).

 

Here's the link to the Snap On catalog:

http://buy.snapon.com/catalog/Pro.as...snapon%2Dstore

Here's the link to Koken's web page listing:

http://www.koken-tool.co.jp/en/main_e.htm

 

I ran across a set of crowsfoot flare nut wrenches, but they are 3/8" drive.

found them at Harbor Freight

 

Two more thoughts:

1. By measuring how far off-center the crowsfoot is, you should be able to calculate the what reading you need at the wrench to achieve the torque that you want at the fitting.

2. It seems to me that if you had the crowsfeet, you could calibrate the torque at one crowsfoot by turning it against another torque wrench. You would need a foot (1/4, 3/8, or 1/2 inch, as appropriate) to grip the measuring wrench, that had the same offset from the to-be-measured wrench as the foot that you actually need to use on the fitting.

For example, I've got two 1/2 inch, 250 ft-lb torque wrenches. One is a beam type with a needle pointer on a scale, and the other is a click-stop wrench. I could mount a 1/2 inch foot on the click-stop wrench and adjust it to torque the crowsfoot to whatever reading I wanted on the beam wrench. The trick would be to have some extra hands or something to hold the beam wrench in place...

 

The range we're looking for is 113-190 in-lbf. according to the shop manual, which is 9.4-15.8 lb-ft., if I'm converting correctly.

I think that the 3/8" crow feet would work fine, and if you set your wrench for the middle of the range (~12-13 lb-ft.) the offset added by the length of the crow foot adapter would be negligible.

Unfortunately, my 3/8" torque wrench seems to have become unsuited for anything but torquing lug nuts. For some reason it seems to have "forgotten" how to torque anything under ~45 lb-ft. It'll just keep tightening without a click until one of two things happens... you reach 45+ lb-ft. or you shear off whatever you were tightening. Too bad Craftsman doesn't warranty their torque wrenches, but I think you can take them in for recalibration. Anyone know?

In the mean time, I might as well buy another 3/8" torque wrench to match my 1/4" and 1/2" wrenches.

 

I recall that Griot's has a torque wrench calibration service, so you might try them. Snap On does it too, but I don't know whether that's only for their wrenches.

If yours is a Sears click-stop like mine, then remember to set it to the low end of the scale before storing it. The instructions (which I don't have handy) made a point of it, I am guessing because it will throw off your calibration.

 

I believe that's only for their own wrenches.

It (and all of my torque wrenches) have always been stored set on the lowest setting. I've never even left one "turned up" over night, even when I hadn't finished a project and left my tools laying out.