Joined: Wed Aug 11 2010, 10:15AM
Location: E WA
Posts: 1230
I have a new to me 1968 LeBaron and will be going through the brakes before too long.
I have done brakes different ways on on old Chryslers including from scratch using the steel coil and using a variety of the pre made straight steel brake lines with couplers where necessary
Very recently I purchased some of the pre made straight copper nickel alloy brake lines from NAPA for the rear end lines on my 64 Crown and loved them. Really soft and easy to bend with great sealing and very high corrosion resistance.
For the 68 LeBaron I decided to go back to the coil method but using the copper nickel alloy tubing.
The kits looks like it should have everything for the entire brake job including the difficult to find fittings for the master cylinder (1/2" and 9/16")
I figured that I would post this in case anyone is considering new brake lines in the near future and want to do the entire job themselves.
Joined: Fri Apr 21 2006, 07:28AM
Location: England
Posts: 739
I did my fury from scratch using cupro nickel. Although easy bend it does have a toughness to it. Some people over here use pure copper. Although still legal, there is argument about it work hardening and cracking. Cupro nickel is the way to go. I did have trouble getting a decent flare using my home DIY tool. So I took it to the the motor spares shop, they have a better flaring tool, but even their flares weren't satisfactory. (The stuff they sell is the pure copper pipe).
Eventually I took it to an industrial outfit with better equipment. thats the only way I got a decent flare. Just something to watch out for.
Joined: Wed Aug 11 2010, 10:15AM
Location: E WA
Posts: 1230
3ducks wrote ...
I did my fury from scratch using cupro nickel. Although easy bend it does have a toughness to it. Some people over here use pure copper. Although still legal, there is argument about it work hardening and cracking. Cupro nickel is the way to go. I did have trouble getting a decent flare using my home DIY tool. So I took it to the the motor spares shop, they have a better flaring tool, but even their flares weren't satisfactory. (The stuff they sell is the pure copper pipe).
Eventually I took it to an industrial outfit with better equipment. thats the only way I got a decent flare. Just something to watch out for.
Thanks for the heads up about making the double flair. I have made a few of the double flair fittings using the steel lines and know that they can be tricky. That was part of the reason i moved to the pre-made brake lines.
Some of the "bad" fitting I have had to cut off and make again and some work just by tightening down more. I did always get them to work though.
I assume (hope) that the softness of the copper/nickel line will make it easier to form the double flair fittings. You need the metal to flow to form the fitting and the Cu/Ni should flow better than steel.
Joined: Sun Sep 14 2014, 07:33PM
Location: Delaware
Posts: 8
The copper/nickel line is easy to work with and I expect it corrodes less than plain steel line. I have not had any problems double flaring it with this tool. http://www.mastercool.com/product/71475/