Brake Line nuts

[ben23f]

Hi all,

Ive been having heaps of trouble trying to get my brake lines to screw back into the master cylinder and the block bolted to the car where the lines coil.
The threads on them are pretty rough and the hexagonal head is more a circle that a hexagon.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to go about this? I must've spent almost 2 hours trying to screw on of them in with no luck. I have bought an aftermarket master cylinder but it has the same thread as the original one I pulled off.

Is is possible to replace these nuts?

Thanks

[RiverPatrol]

Hard brake lines can be a bear to get started. Being stiff they can throw you off angle just enough to make life difficult, as you have found.

Yes, you can replace the nuts/fittings. You'd need to round up replacement fittings, then have handy a brake line cutting tool and a flaring tool. You would cut the flared end off of the brake line, slip off the old fitting, slip on the new fitting, then re-flare the end of the brake line. As I recall it might need a double flare, but I could be wrong. Don't be too generous when you cut off the end of the brake line, you'll need as much line as possible to try to reach the master and the proportioning valve.

[Johnny Roadkill]

It is a double flare. If you're not confident doing this yourself you can measure the length of the brake lines needed with a piece of wire or string and get new ones made up at a brake specialist with new flare nuts fitted. Then just take 'em home, carefully bend them to shape using a pipe, bottle, or something as a mandrel. You can get stainless lines made up if you want a bit of bling too, and it wasn't too expensive last time I had it done. I got street-legal braided flexible lines made up too while I was at it.

You can also get an extra 30cm or so in the lines that attach to the master and coil them just under the master cylinder like a spring - it's supposed to give the lines somewhere to flex when the firewall and rest of the chassis twist under load.

cheers,
D

[ben23f]

Thanks guys for the ideas.

Does anyone know the size of the brake lines? Don't know if its different over the years but mines a 76 patrol.

[ben23f]

Also the thread of the nuts/master cylinder?

[Pancho]

Does anyone know the size of the brake lines?

Brake line size is 1/8"
Nuts are 3/8-24 UNF
Be carefully when buying the nuts because the ones in the metric system (10mm-1) are quite similar but will not seal well.