it's been some time since I've posted directly to the dedicated construction forum so I thought I would post these by way of showing the ready to re-install rear end.
As can be seen from these this first group of three pictures, what has been done is to completely fabricate and shape a new set of rear brake hard lines from 3/16ths stainless steel tube and its related fittings. Unlike normal steel tube, where a double flare is required and the only fitting needed is a basic invert flare nut, stainless is completely different.
For starters the flare itself is different. Unlike soft steel where the flare is both double wall and made to a 45 degree angle, stainless is only a single wall and the angle is 37 degrees. This is sometimes known as an A-N, or Army-Navy angle flare due to it being created by those two branches of the military as a way to standarize lines and fittings during WW II. To support this single wall flare, there is a two part attachment consisting of a ferrule that has the angle of the flare built into it and a gland nut that slips over both. When doing the install, the line flare butts up against its matching shoulder on the adapter or fitting in the wheel cylinder, the ferrule slides up and against it, and the nut slips over both of them and screws into place. The net result is a very secure connection that is both strong and internally well supported.
What appears above is a three shot sequence of the lines as they exit the wheel cylinders and make their way to the distribution block, aka the splitter. Elsewhere there is a short series of shots of what I had to do to modfiy the splitter for height to get it to align with the new lines. The major less endearing quality about stainless is that it is hard to bend and will kink if too tight a curve or radius is attempted.
Shown here is just the lines as seen from the rear of the differential. As I explained above, Stainless can be hard to bend into tight curves and angles, (and trying to heat the stuff is tricky because too much heat causes it to tear or blow out) so the curves were created to be as tight as possible whlle still following and laying in the track that the steel originals would have used originally. They also pick up the attachment clips or hangers that would have secured the old lines in place. The biggest departure from stock was the points at which both sides jumped off their axle tubes and then proceeded to line up with the splitter. For both sides this alignment is linear; no tight curves or angles as would have been the case with the old steel lines. Having the splitter sitting higher on its mounting tab as it now does removed the need for any heavy twisting and pushing on either line to get them to index against the adapters already screwed into the splitter.
The basic tools for this exercise were a hand held brake line bending tool and a good strong pair of thumbs!! Once the bending tool set the basic curve, the final shaping and tweaking was all a hand driven process with help from my chain link fence posts in a few instances. In the one or two rare instances where more serious persuasion became necessary, the engine of choice was my lightest dead blow hammer; only a pound or so and only where needed to adjust a curve in a tight spot.
All this gives me a rear end that is ready to be re-installed. The actual install is pending; I still have to set my new UMI cross brace up and into position and before that can happen I want to visit the location and get it clean and the paint touched up as needed. At this point the shocks are still mia and no decistion on what to use has been made. Budget?? What budget.
Oh yeah, last minute item of interest..... I GOT MY DOOR SKIN! I GOT MY DOOR SKIN!! I GOT MY DOOR SKIN!!! I GOT MY DOOR SKIN!!!!..................Hee, hee, hee, hee, hee.
Nick
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