I just finished up freshening up my front disc brakes after two days of having it on stands. Despite how hard it seemed when I was reading through the instructions on how to replace the rotors/pads/hoses, it is actually a fairly simple ordeal... not nearly as much of a PITA as installing the headers were. I'm happy to report that my front brakes are completely replaced (rotors, pads, hoses, bearings, seals) except for the calipers which I cleaned and reused. A big thanks goes to Ed Miller for his excellent rotor replacement guide, which helped me a ton.

Anywho, so now I'm trying to replace the rear brake hose which is the one that connects to the hard line and then breaks off into a T-fitting, then to the either drum on each side.

The problem is that I cannot remove the hard line from the connector at the rubber hose. It's like seized onto the rubber line. Apparently I don't have the correct tools for removing this line because none of my wrench seem to work on this fitting. I tried using an adjustable wrench (always my backup in situations like this) and after a few tries I decided to stop because it was rounding off the fitting really bad.

Now I'm stumped. Not sure how I should proceed from here... I called my friend who has redone his Z28's brakes from back to front just like I am doing, and he suggested soaking it in PB Blaster and using vice grips to get it off. I am a bit skeptical of this method though, because I'm almost positive this lines are factory originals and they seem very flimsy and I don't want to break the line in the process of trying to remove it. My car is my daily driver at the moment, and I need to get it back up and running as soon as possible.

Basically, I need suggestions on what I should do to get this line off so I can get the braided lines on. Also, would it be bad to run the car with braided lines up front but still have the rubber hose in the back? This is a last resort option, but if I can't get the line off, I might just have to do this.

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

Soak it, soak it, and soak it some more. See if this link helps, it covers the rearend swap I did and also brake line removal:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tarami...er72/my_photos

Be careful, if you snap it you'll likely need to replace the whole line from front to rear. The vice grip trick will work but may also damage your fitting. Be prepared to have to replace the line or reflare it, but if it's that rusty you'd be better off replacing it with new.

Running braided fronts and rubber rear lines will not damage anything.

Good luck!

Ed