I recently installed the blazer brakes front and rear. While at it I installed mostly all new lines but now they are leaking pretty much at every connection point. I thought I did the double flares correctly. Are there any tips or tricks that I can use at this point to salvage my new lines short of replacing everything again?
Leaking brake lines
- Thread starter tngbody
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If you used stainless tubing for your lines try loosening and re tightening the lines. Steel lines should conform fairly easy but I would recommend the same as on the stainless lines and make sure they are tightened down very tight with a line wrench.
If any brake fluid got on the surface of anything that you don't want damaged, wipe that off as soon as possible and rinse with water. Brake fluid is extremely corrosive. I am not too proud to admit that I have learned this lesson the hard way!
Did you reuse your stock hoses or blazer hoses? Might want to make sure your hoses are compatible with a double flare
Remove a line and inspect the sealing surface. That is the cone part of the flare. Is there a line from the split of the flaring tool?
I spend $$$$ on the steel braided lines and the stainless lines. All of them leaked like Niagra Falls. I've done this a bunch of times before, there was no tightening, loosening and retightening's that would fix two of the lines. Took everything out and put the old stuff back on. Problem fixed. The trash can got a lot of $$$ in brand named stainless/braided stuff!
Uncouple every connection that you created and use a strong flashlight to check the flare surface and the matching shoulder. The flare should show a uniform shoulder width for the full circumference. Flush the caliper end out with CFC free brake cleaner and pressure air blow it dry. Check the threads on both halves of the connection to make sure they are clean and that it did not get crossthreaded somehow. Re-assemble the connection, get it as finger tight as possible and use a genuine flare nut wrench or crowfoot adapter with a johnson bar to make achieve the final tightness. Be aware that you are mating two sealing surfaces to each other that have not been "talking" to each other before and they will "work" on each other to some degree to get as physically tight a surface match as possible. Take a moment to recheck the hoses and make sure you put in the brass crush washer on either side of the banjo fitting before screwing in the bolt or it will leak.
Once you have visited all the connections having issues and made sure they are made well, and when you think you have them as tight as possible, then go back and lean on them again. You might be surprised at what you find. The last set of brake lines that I fabricated and installed took three subsequent passes with a flare line crowfoot wrench on a 3/8ths power bar to get to the "No Mo" point of tightness.
Nick
Once you have visited all the connections having issues and made sure they are made well, and when you think you have them as tight as possible, then go back and lean on them again. You might be surprised at what you find. The last set of brake lines that I fabricated and installed took three subsequent passes with a flare line crowfoot wrench on a 3/8ths power bar to get to the "No Mo" point of tightness.
Nick
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