www.jec.org.uk

has anyone here put new brake pipes on/in?
I have a nice roll of pipe, however when i disconnected the section i am wanting to replace i have noticed it is Flanged or trumpted out.

So any tips how to go about replacing/refitting and what tools i need.

I presume there is a tool out there for finishing off the ends.

Ta in advance for any help

PaulB

Frost do a good brake flaring tool, automec aswell

http://www.frost.co.uk/productList.asp? ... Cat=Brakes
http://www.automec.co.uk/oakes_tools/oa ... e_set.html

I hope that you are not using copper pipe, it work hardens and will fracture - seriously - learn from my fail. Cunifer is the material you need.

I will have to look at the stuff i have got Iain, i have got to admit it looks like copper to me, however the bloke at the shop said its great stuff, easy to bend with out special tools and does not kink.
He got out a small piece and bent it by hand into an s shape no bother.

I am a bit upset after seeing the price of those Flaring tools!
Makes me think now, that with the price of the roll ot brake pipe, plus the price of the tool.
Would probably be cheaper or same price to get the garage to do it.
Doh.


Ta 4 your post
PaulB

I'll stick my two penny worth in regarding copper brake pipe.

I fitted copper pipes to my SII XJ in 1988 when I rebuilt it (flaring tool and a roll of tube for under £20 - don't get too sophisticated:
http://www.pvrdirect.co.uk/productinfo. ... tref=37870 ) and the pipes were still in place and satisfactory with no cracks or peoblems when I sold it 17 years later.

Point taken almcl, and there are plenty of cars driving around with copper brake lines with no problems at all but.........

Total brake failiure as happened to me in my XR2 (shame!) years ago is proper scary and probably the worst hundred yards I have ever driven on the road. (It is still etched in my mind more than ten years later)

Maybe it was because it was quite a long unsupported length (5-6in) from the master cylinder to the wing but it took less than a year to fracture.

Once bitten and all that......

Well i have just purchased a flaring/bending kit from ebay just over a tenner including postage.

As long as it does the job once before i have to throw it away, it will have paid for itself.

So all in all, if all goes well it should cost me 17-18 quid to re do the whole car.
Plus i'll have the satisfaction of doing it myself, this all of course depends on whether my ebay budget buy works.

Actually just remembered, my project will end up costing a bit more as i need to but the fixings for the pipe and some new brake fluid.
Maybe i am looking at a more wallet unfriendly 25quid.

Total brake failure as happened to me in my XR2 .... is proper scary...

Maybe it was because it was quite a long unsupported length (5-6in) from the master cylinder to the wing but it took less than a year to fracture.


I think you have it exactly, there, Iain. How the installation is setup is critical. I was fortunate: all the supporting plastic clips were readily available when I did the job and the pipes were well attached to the legendarily rigid XJ bodyshell. I had plenty of time to follow the Jaguar routing:
http://almcl.org/images/rebuild5.jpg

I am a bit jealous of that easy access.
Here is an odd / interesting thing, went back to my motor factors for some brake line fixings.

They Dont do them? how odd to sell the lines but not any fixings the Local Halswerves did not have them either.

Looks like i am going to be fabricating some, with some strips of tin and mr drill.

Yeah, strange, isn't it? Our local motor factors have stopped doing them, Halfrauds stock of over-priced small parts has gone right down, too.

It's almost as though the elfandsafety creeps have managed to persuade everyone under the age of forty that it's 'too dangerous to work on your car yourself' and that you must leave it to some semi-literate wrench monkey on a rundown trading estate or pay a main dealer £140 an hour.

Spares days can be quite a good source of fixings, still, but even those aren't quite so plentiful. Our local agricultural store has some amazingly good stuff too, much of it for tractors and combines, admittedly, but smaller stuff as well.