I'm not sure if I can do this but-can rubber brake line be spliced into a hard brake line to fix a leak? I have a leak in one of my hard lines and was just curious if I'd be able to cut out the bad part and splice into it-instead of replacing the whole line.

 

NO! not a good idea! Very unsafe. you could get a section of hard line and fittings, flare it, and put it together, that's still a pretty cheap solution.

 

Definitely flare it and not use a rubber hose. Flashback… A guy replacing spark plugs drops his tool (battery still connected) tool hits the starter and frame. Fire erupts and put out. The only damage done was the passenger side front brake line was severed. He tries the rubber hose method only to erupt when he slams on his brake. True story..... that "guy" was me. Many moons ago when I first started to work on my on car, now I am older and wiser now but still learning new tricks.

 

What would be the best way to fix it by flaring? I know they sell hand held flaring tools-but the line that's cracked is tucked under the lower door sill. Don't want to bend it til it breaks somewhere else.
Also--are those flaring deals expensive--and do they come w/everything you need?

 

You should be able to rent them from Autozone or some other place (dunno what you have in your area), and get a piece of tubing to practice on first. If this is on your 86, it will have metric lines and need the 'bubble flare' tools.
Your best bet might be to use a long line and go back to the fitting at the flex hose, rather than splicing a short section in.
While you're flaring the pice coming from the prop valve, there will be brake fluid running out of it...be sure your master cylinder doesn't run low cuz that's a pain to bleed.

Pete

 

How would I bend the line going around the curves w/o snapping it? If the level runs low in the m/c how would I bleed that?

 

I was at Harbor Freight getting some flare wrenches as I had to replace my passenger side front brake hose. While I was there I found a flare tool set for about $10.00.

The one thing I will say after playing with the flare set is it is much easier to flare a line that has not been bent yet. Any bends in a line tend to cause the flare to be not centered. This kit will do the flare and the double flare. It might be able to do a buble flare if you were carefull but it is not advertised as being able to.

Most auto parts stores will sell you brake lines in various sizes with fittings already on each end. You just need a coupler fitting to get the length you need and you can always make a line that is a little too long fit with a curve or spiral somewhere along the way.

Be wary though. I have found that you need to be sure of the ends or be willing to hunt out adapters to make standard brake line fittings work on some parts of a 1983 firebird. The size of the openings on the master cylinder I got from an advance auto parts were not the same as my old master cylinder. Then after hunting down the adapters and taking about 5 hours wasting valuable daylight doing so I found that the rear fitting could not be made to seal. I think the threads were somehow enlarged as no one could find a fitting to make it work correctly. The thread pitch was ok but the threads only gripped the ends of the adapter. When I tried to snug it down it would take those ends off. Grrrr, the second master cylinder is due in this morning so I hope to be able to install it and start the bleeding process.

The master cylinder going out caused me to discover the badly worn brake hose that I have successfully replaced. It is probably a good thing as my emergency brake is non functional at this time. Trying to find a silver lining in the cloud of not being able to drive my firebird this last week and a half.

Wish me luck.

dzimmerm