Re: Something About Brake Lines

From: jon@dakota-truck.net
Date: Mon Aug 28 2006 - 16:32:43 EDT


Terrible Tom <SilverEightynine@aol.com> wrote:

: Bob mentioned that he used teflon on the brake fittings... err.. not
: what I would recommend. I once was installing one of those flexible
: natural gas appliance hoses... and it said to NOT use teflon on the
: flared fitting. I called the company up and asked if this was true,
: because I had always used teflon tape on all of my other water pipe and
: gas line connections (hardline) the rep said yes - never use thread
: sealer on a flared fitting. At the time I didn't know what a flare
: fitting was. The flare itself is what actually makes the seal between
: the connections. If that flare is damaged, improperly formed, or
: contaminated, the seal can fail. Somewhat more disastrously in a gas
: line than a brake line, but the same theory applies. I wouldn't use any
: thread sealer on a brake line. If its not leaking yet? heh I wouldn't
: worry about it then.

    Yep, I don't know that it would actually hurt to use thread
sealer on a flare fitting, unless of course you get sloppy and
get some of it in the tube itself, but it doesn't do any good
either. Like Tom said, the seal takes place between the flared
surfaces. The only purpose of the threads is to pull these two
surfaces together. If the flared seal fails, putting teflon
on the threads isn't going to prevent a leak, its just going to
go out the other side.

   I do use thread sealer (the tape usually) on fittings all the
time, before putting it on the threads though, just have a look at
the fitting to see what kind of seal it is. If the threads are just
there to form a mechanical connection and not the seal itself,
using thread sealant offers no benefit and can only introduce potential
problems.

: Which brings me to flaring tools. This is more of a gripe... When I
: replaced all of Christine's hard lines... I bought a couple coils and
: decided to flare and bend them to fit, myself. I went through three
: flare tools. Two from AZ. They are the same kind of flare too most
: parts stores sell. The two piece bar clamp, the little flare discs, a
: handle, and the point press. One BRAND NEW tool that I took out of the
: plastic wrapper, screwed up every.. single.. flare... another snapped in
: half... the third I managed to get to behave. I'm planning on investing
: in a high quality flare tool one of these days. There were times when I
: was working on those brake lines when I wanted to fly over to china,
: find the little bugger who made those damned flare tools' and flare his
: ass with it... if you are going to flare your brake lines yourself,
: spend a few extra bucks and get a quality tool and do it right the first
: time.

   Yes indeed; I really hate those flaring tools. :-) I too have used
the Autozone loan-a-tool type with limited success. The last time out, I
went to NAPA and splurged on what is supposed to be a good quality tool
with a lifetime guarantee. I think it was about $45-50. Even that was
painful; no way could I bring myself to pay $100 for the Snap-On version;
especially for such a simple tool! It has been a while since I used it
last, so I don't remember how happy I was with it, but I still have it
and didn't return it right away, so I must have been reasonably happy
with its performance. :-)

   I do actually have a very high quality flaring tool, but
unfortunately it does me no good for brake lines since it is a
37 degree single flare tool, used for AN fittings. Also, its
only supposed to be used on aluminum and copper.
(http://www.jonsteiger.com/www/barracuda/efi/PICS/096.jpg)

-- 
                                          -Jon-

.- Jon Steiger -- jon@dakota-truck.net or jon@jonsteiger.com -. | '96 Kolb Firefly, '96 Suzuki Intruder, Miscellaneous Mopars | `-------------------------------- http://www.jonsteiger.com --'



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