Stainless Steel Brake Lines


[BSD] There are more than one manufacturer of stainless steel wrapped teflon brake lines. One of them is Earl’s which makes aircraft approved brake lines with AN fittings. These fittings are meant to be "serviced" meaning taken on and off without damage. Just what you want for a race car. I can’t say what type the Russel or Goodrich (is that the right name?) lines are.

 
 I think Comptech and RM Racing sell brake lines for about $200 made to fit your car (not  Earl's). However, Brian's Racing will be happy to sell you Earl's lines made to fit your  car exactly for $100.00 plus shipping. Or, if you are lucky, I'll just tell you the part  numbers and you can order them yourself for about $60.00. :-)
 
 The install for Brian's Brake Lines is as follows:
 
 Front
 Support car on jack stands. Remove wheels. Loosen 14mm banjo bolt holding brake  line to caliper. Remove bolts holding brake line to brackets on suspension. Remove two  14mm bolts holding caliper to bracket. Clean area where flex brake line meets hard line.  Remove U clip by grabbing it and pulling it towards you. The U clip is laying flat and the  opening is on the inboard side. It has a lip on it for you to grab. You will re-use this.  Loosen hard brake line end nut from flexible brake line. I used vice-grips on flex line  and 10mm wrench on hard line end. You _should_ use 10mm flare end wrench on this end.  Stripping or rounding this fitting will cause you _extreme_ pain and problems and delays  and expense. Do NOT strip this nut or the threads. I warned you. (Use any  "loosening" agent you have on it. I used WD-40 which may or may not have  helped.) Also, make sure to use a good grip on the flex end of this joint. Relying on the  bracket to hold it (you'll see what I mean) didn't work for some reason. But, vice-grips  and 10mm worked great. Now you are ready to actually remove flex line. When you do, brake  flid will start dripping from hard line. It will drip slowly but NEVER stop until the 
 entire brake fluid reservoir is empty. Cork or block this line from dripping if you can.  Now, remove flex line completely from car and caliper. Throw away 2 crush washers on banjo  bold end. You need to use new ones. Modify caliper as described below. Put caliper back on  and attach hose. See below for hose issues.
 
 Rear
 Loosen 14mm banjo bolt. Clean area around hard line to flex line fitting. Remove  U clip. Loosen 10mm nut into flex line. Be careful. I warned you twice. Remove plastic  cover around parking brake cable (bottom back side of caliper.) Remove cotter pin clip  thing holding parking brake cable end. (Make sure parking brake is not on. Your car is on  jack stands, right!?) Remove two 12mm bolts holding parking brake to rear caliper. Remove  two 14mm bolts holding caliper to bracket. Remove 14mm banjo bolt. Remove caliper. Remove  flex brake line bolt (12mm). Remove flex brake line. Modify caliper (see below). Put  caliper back on. Attach parking brake and plastic cover. Attach hose. See below for hose  issues.
 
 Modify Caliper
 The Brian's Brake Lines (Earl's) have a different length banjo end than the  stock brake lines. Look at where the banjo bolt attachs to caliper. There is a U shaped  trough for the hose to go through on the way to the hole for the banjo bolt. This U is too  narrow for Earl's banjo fitting. Take a drill to this to widen it. My largest bit is  smaller than the gap so I wiggled my drill back and forth. Plug the hole with a paper  towel or something appropriate so metal particles won't get in the caliper. Clean this  area well. Make sure the brake line and banjo bolt will fit before trying this on the car.  Use new crush washers when you install the banjo fitting. Leaks are bad. Old/used washers  may leak.
 
 Hose Issues
 Brake lines should flex but NOT rub on anything. The stock lines are designed  specifically to NOT rub. You should do whatever is necessary to keep your brake lines from  rubbing. In the rear, I used a tie wrap. I put the tie wrap on the hose where it routes  between the A-arms and through the axle end housing. I tied the tie wrap really tight on  the hose and left about 1.5" of tie wrap sticking out. This sticking out piece goes  around the inside of the gap in the axle housing (just lays there). It appears to keep the  brake line from touching anything except the tie wrap. Note that the suspension moves up a  lot from where it is now (hanging in full droop.) Take this into consideration. In the  front, the problem is much worse. Not only does the suspension move up and down but the  caliper and wheel move in and out (as the wheel turns.) Also, the line goes through  several places and was held on in 2 places there originally. I removed my hose brackets  from the car and used tie wraps again to hold my line away from stuff and away from the  suspension. Find a way to keep the line from rubbing on anything.
 
 When attaching the new SS lines to the hard line, make sure to attach the adapter female  end to the brake line first. Then, put end of line up through bracket towards hard line.  Tighten adapter to hose first. Then align hose towards caliper. Finally, tighten hard line  to hose. This way worked best for me. Do you over tighten these lines. Once you have bled  the brakes, after re-assembly, try pressing on brakes at full force. See if any fluid  leaks from anywhere. Tighten those fittings more. Press again on brakes. Re-check.  Re-check brake lines often.
 
 Horror Story
 The person I sold my Mustang to (which had stainless/teflon brake lines) had a  major brake failure. The way I had my lines secured had the SS lines close to the hard  lines in one area. The SS line eventually wore through the hard line and caused a total  loss of braking to one wheel. This was on a car that went racing many times a year.  Fortunately, the new owner was close to home and going slow.
 
 Finally
 Stainless brake lines are really a racing thing. They provide hardly any  advantage for street use. They can be a liability, though. Consider them high  maintenance and keep a close eye on them. Check for leaks, rubbing, wear, cracks,  deformation, etc. They are part of the second most important safety feature of your car.  (Steering #1 in my book.) Don't let "upgraded" lines cause problems for you.
 
 Earl's Brake Lines 
 Front: 630102 18 (18", banjo, #3 AN)
 Rear: 630102 24 (24", banjo, #3 AN)
 Adapter: 989537 (#3 AN to 10mm x 1.0 pitch (aka Honda)) 

Do It Yourself