Technical Brake Pipe Nut Help

[Greggers]

Hi all,

I had a quick question about my brake pipes... when I fitted my Brembo's the other weekend, I realised that when I went to fit the braided hose to the hard pipe attached to the inner wheel arch on the o/s, that the nut on the end of the hard pipe wouldn't turn. This made it hard to fit the hose but thankfully, the braided hose nut at the caliper end could turn independent of the hose, meaning that I could fit it without the hose getting all twisted as I tightened it up (if you follow my drift).

The hoses that I got with the Brembo's are second hand and a little bit worn, so I wanted to fit my Goodridge hoses but to do this, I'm going to have to free the nut at the end of the hard pipe (as each end of the pipe is fixed and can't rotate)... Soooo, my question is, how hard is it to free brake pipe nuts once they've seized and what's the best way of going about it? What I don't want to do is try freeing the nut and end up sheering the pipe.

Any advice welcome guys!

 

[sixpotman]

If the pipe on your cars that seized up then
it's getting near the end of it's life - change it
for your own and others safety.

If your intent on not changing it then any sort
of thread eeze anti rust spay sprayed and left
for a few days. If there are no rubber pipes
attached some form of heat to break the bond -
heat then quick cool 4 or five times may shift
it.

BUT IF THE BRAKE PIPES PITTED AT ALL CHANGE IT.

John

 

[PNL]

You normally have one male and one female union on each hose greggs..female to the brake line and male into the caliper so the hose doesnt twist..yours must have been so full of rust you couldnt tell one from the other....

 

[Greggers]

Sorry, I haven't explained it very well

Nope, no rust at all. It's just that on the Goodridge hoses, the male threaded end can't rotate independent of the hose itself. This means that you have to fit it to the caliper first and then use the rotating male end of the hard pipe to screw into the female end of the Goodridge pipe. This then avoids the Goodridge pipe twisting.

The hard brake pipe itself is in good condition as is the male threaded nut on it, with no signs of rust or corrosion... it just seems to be stuck The n/s one is fine and the threaded male nut is lovely and loose, fnar fnar

I'll try giving a few sharp knocks to see if that helps along with some GT85 or WD40.

 

[sixpotman]

Glad to see there's no rust

The Nut's probably been tightened up that tight
the pipe metal has spread out and climpted
it's self inside the nut head so that when it turns
it twists the pipe as well. Tapping may be the only
way to free it without pipe damage.

John

 

[Greggers]

I think you may be right there, John. I'll give it a go but if I have any issues, I'll probably take it in to my garage for them to have a look at and sort

Thanks for your help

 

[Greggers]

Right, problem solved and I think others might encounter similar issues with theirs if they ever want to replace their brake hoses.

It appears that Fiat sprayed or applied a protective coating to the brake lines which seem to have caused the brakeline nut to become stuck. Basically, liberal amount of penetrating fluid and some gentle to and fro'ing with a spanner alllowed the nt to start rotating freely.

Everything is hunky dory and right in the world again... and I found the source of an annoying squeak I've had! Bonus!