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New Brake Lines and Fittings


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Two questions:

If I'm running all new hard lines, all the way around my truck, should I stick with the standard 3/16" line, or is there a benefit to upgrading to 1/4" or 5/16" line?

 

Second, has anyone else had a problem coming up with new correct flare fittings that will thread into the master cylinder and proportioning valve? What solutions have you found?

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As far as I've found so far, they aren't metric fittings. Basically, on the prop valve, you have one hole that is a normal 3/16" line fitting threading, there is one hole with a 1/4" line fitting threading, and there are 2-3 holes with a 5/16" line fitting threading (in other words, a standard 5/16" line fitting will thread into it).

 

Here's the tricky part. You can buy, from Napa, or wherever, premade straight lines in various lengths, flared, with fittings. You can get these lines in whatever diameter you desire, 3/16, 1/4, or 5/16. You can also get them with whatever threading you desire on either end. The b***h about it is, you can't buy just the dang fittings. I, apparently mistakenly, bought a roll of 3/16" line, ran my rough lines in the truck, assuming I could then figure out what fittings I needed, go buy them, put them on, then flare the ends. Not so. One option for me now would be to throw out what I've already done and buy premade lines, as I described above.

 

What I think I am going to try instead, is use some reducer fittings. You can buy, say, a 5/16 threaded fitting that is tapped so a standard size 3/16" line threaded fitting threads into it. Basically, you have one fitting, then another threads into the back of it. I think that's what I'm going to try before I go buy all new lines. Hope that helps....

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dakal i've removed all of mine. but i do have some sort of cherokee valve thingy up front. not sure what it does. my dad put it on when he was originally working on the truck, before we decided it was mine.

 

but it works fine with no valve, and i'm sure there's an aftermarket adjustable one out there somewhere.

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I swapped in a 95 booster and prop valve in to my 90 and was not able to get the right fittings or adapters. I ended up buying 25 feet of bulk line from AdvanceAuto and re-using all the fittings that came with my truck and the junkyard parts. Double-flaring all that line was a pain in the @$$, but it did work. :D

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For the fitting question:

 

I looked EVERYwhere for these fittings. All of the parts houses, Home depot, and a store that only sells liquid connections.

No luck whatsoever! Even looking for adapters, I couldn't get em.

 

Only spot I could get them was the junkyard. I grabbed enough fittings in case someone else on here ran into this problem, so if you need them, PM me, because I couldn't find them at all elsewhere.

 

And make sure when you put the fittings on new lines that you use a double flaring tool on the lines, not just a normal flaring tool. There's too much pressure in the braking system to run standard flares.

 

 

As for the 3/16 vs 1/4 vs 5/16 lines, I talked with Eagle about running 1/4" lines from the BMC to the prop valve (isn't this called the combination valve?) and he believed that it wouldn't increase or decrease braking power. It would only change where the pedal engages.

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i also bought a 25 foot roll of brake line, my local Car Quest had the nuts that I needed for the 3/16 line. Auto Zone has the brake line fitting adapters (they should also have the nuts). I am running a 69 Camaro master cylinder and a Summit racing adjustable porportining valve (I was going to run the XJ one, but the "it should work"line bothered me).

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  • 2 weeks later...

Uh, NAPA sells the fittings... The standard ones at least. You just need to talk to a guy who knows the cataloges. If they're stupid about it, find a wholesaler and ask them - those guys are more likely to know things.

 

 

And there's a local chain here (lordco) that sells both the metric and standard ones. And adapter fittings, and so on...

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