Date: Tue, 25 Dec 2007 13:05:33 -0800
Reply-To: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Sender: Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From: Scott Daniel - Shazam <scottdaniel@TURBOVANS.COM>
Subject: Re: brake line: part 2
In-Reply-To: <159070990712251240l7ad1804cy590dc045290a98bb@mail.gmail.com>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"
Hi shawn,
I was thinking you might end up re-engineering the whole front brake line
layout . I'm sure they installed those lines and T's first thing on a bare
chassis with new parts and perfect tools for the job at the factory, but
that sure doesn't help now !
By 'flex lines' I assume you mean hoses.
If you can save the bracket that the top end of the hose clips
into...........you sort of 'must' do that, or fab some other bracket or have
a floppy junction there. Where ever hose meets pipe on all cars there is
always a support bracket so no flexing happens to the pipe.
The hose you can replace easily enough. The brake line you'll replace.
The bracket which is part of the 'frame' I believe, you need to save.
And there's just one other part there - a clip like thing, that holds the
hose to the bracket, it fits under the nut on the brake line. If your rears
aren't that bad you can look at it back there to see what it's supposed to
look like.
Re-flaring an existing pipe in the van sounds like it's something that
you'd really like to avoid if at all possible, if not semi-impossible to do.
Relocating things so you can assemble them nicely in place is a find idea.
I'd probably do that myself, nicely and solidly. I think you should order
new brass T's. Either from a vw stealership or from a brake specialty
supplier, or good used from a west coast junk yard. I have parts vanagons
which probably have fine used T's on them. PIA to remove them though !
At least your syncro van didn't get crashed or someone hurt ! And you do
have quite a hot ride for a back up, though I sure hear you about not
wanting to drive it in your conditions !
Scott
www.turbovans.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of
robert feller
Sent: Tuesday, December 25, 2007 12:40 PM
To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
Subject: brake line: part 2
So we crawled around and started to get to work. Both fronts lines need
replaced and to be quite honest me and another competent mechanic have no
idea how you guys get the lines off that "T" where it is placed! There is no
chance in hell we can get at it well enough, plus the rust looks way to
caked on. We are guessing the T is toast too.
Additionally, where the hard line meets the flex line the corrosion is so
ugly we cannot even determine how the two fit together, so I'm temporarily
screwed...and will most likely need new flex lines too!
The line from the master to the T looks great. Has anyone cut and flared
this and put a 3rd party T up stream a foot or so and then rerun new lines?
We see no way of working with the existing T based on it's location.
--
Shawn Feller
Ohio
www.carboncow.com
