Brake Line Replacement Help

I did a couple of searches but didn't turn up what I needed.

I've got a 2001 XJ with an RE Super-Flex 3.5in lift.

Figured out the brake line going from front to rear on driver side had a leak in it. Brakes still "work" but performance has decreased. So I figured I'd just take it to the shop because it seemed like a simple job and I didn't think it would cost much.

So I drove it up to the shop sat around for about 30 minutes. Mechanic rolls in and gives me a quote. 405 BUCKS! :shocked:

Quote said parts for all brake lines would be about 60 bucks and the fittings 40 so 100 bucks. Then labor for 250. He also said the job was difficult and said I needed to change out the brake lines starting from the master cylinder back.

I just told him I'd take it home.

So what sizes do I need to do this? I feel like I can probably do this if I can change out a radiator. Haven't done brakes in awhile though. How much time am I looking at to replace the one faulty line. I could do the other lines too. But I have hard time believing the brake lines from the RE kit would have gone bad and need replacing right now. It's been less than a year since I put the kit on.

Let me know where I need to get started. Until then I'll just keep pouring brake fluid in it. :repair:

The fittings on the brake lines are 3/16th.
There are two (three?) other sizes on the lines going to and from the proportioning valve/master cylinder.
Fitting new hard lines and rubeer all around is not that difficult, the hardest is routing to the passenger front.

Two options: piece together lines from napa, or buy a roll of 25' brake lineassorted fittings, and rent a flaring tool from a chain store. I have done both methods. Wayyyyy easier and cheaper to buy a roll; a lot less of a hassle too.

All in all, very doable if you are even slightly handy, just set aside a weekend to do it as it is very tedious. Bleeding also takes a while because there is no fluid in the lines.
Hope this helps. $405 is robbery. Do it yourself for like $30 if you dont round off the fittings on the rubber lines.

Also, invest in a std flared nut wrech set. Otherwise, changing the rbber lines will lead you to replacing the ENTIRE hard lines...ask me how i know

Can it be done in a driveway or should I take it to the base shop and put it on a lift? Mind you I'm living at an apartment.

If you have ABS, you will need to depress the brake pedal and put a 2x4 on it to keep it depressed. (Un hook the battery so the brake lights don't kill the battery.) This closes the ABS valves and prevents air from entering the ABS system while you work on the brakes. Air in the ABS system can ruin the ABS pump and it will need to be replaced ($700) and bleed by the dealership with a DRB Scan Tool.

Fortunately I don't have ABS. . At least I'm pretty sure I don't.

Forgot about the ABS. Fortunately, not many XJ's have it.

Yes, very doable in a driveway. Just make sure you have a helper to bled them when youre done.

I've used the "one man bleeder" tools from autozone - basically it's a check valve on the end of the clear plastic tubing that fits on the bleed screw.

When you bleed them do them in the order of the furthest connection from the master cylinder first - so passenger rear, then drivers rear, then passenger front, then driver side front. I've done it myself, it's easier if you've got two people and both have a clue.

As far as ABS, if they go directly into the master cylinder, you don't have it. If they go into an aluminum block in front of the master cylinder, you do. And the coupling on the firewall that goes to the back wheels is a metric flare, not a standard double flare. If you've got ABS, the fittings need to be metric flared where they connect to the ABS block in the front as well.

Take your time - might want to replace the rear wheel cylinders while you're in there - if it's a northern jeep the fittings are probably rusted in place. Just cut them and put in the new ones.

Mark

Personally, don't bite off more than you can chew at one time.

Do the job in stages that make sense. Replace the proportioning valve to rear hard line and the the flexible rear hose, along with the cross axle hard line as one "job", then on another day do the passenger's side, and on a final day--with extra time--do the driver's side.

Personally, I would do the front-to-rear section on the lift.

Yea I know the front to rear section on the drivers side is where the leak is. So that sounds like a smart idea. I'll have to crawl under there and see what's going on tomorrow after work.

Yep, this is one of the first things I fixed on my XJ actually... did it in a friend's driveway a couple blocks from my apartment.

few things - DOUBLE FLARES ONLY! No single flares, and no compression fittings. I would use pre-flared sections rather than getting a roll + fittings, get a couple of double invert flare joiners and two or three 6' sections of 3/16" line with 3/8-24 invert flare fittings (make sure not to get metric ones... they look damn near the same and will thread in a turn or two before you find out you're screwed. Don't ask how I found out...)

Check all your other brake lines while you are under there, if one is near death, the others probably are too. Especially check the two pieces on the rear axle and the ends of the front lines where they enter the wheel wells.

About eight to ten inches from the proportioning valve you will find an inline union in the rear line, it's got a wonky flare on it, I think it's a bubble flare but it's been months since I looked at it so I'm not sure. Feel free to eliminate the union entirely and go straight to the proportioning valve, the only reason they added that union is because it made stocking the rear brake line for both ABS and non-ABS XJs cheaper (one large common preformed tube, and two short different tubes, one to go to the prop valve the other to go to the ABS HCU.) On that note, the tube nut / fitting on the proportioning valve may be a different one from the rest of the fittings on the line, I forget, just cut the line an inch or two back from the prop valve with a pair of wire cutters and then use a tubing cutter to cut it cleanly once it's out of the rig, pull the old line out and put the same fitting on the new line, then reflare.

did the rear line on my 99 last week....took about two hours...pretty easy. I was wondering why the heck there was a bubble flare union after the proportioning valve. leave it to you kastein for having the answer! i picked up an adapter for that predicament at NAPA.....short piece of 3/16 line with the 1/2" fitting p#813-1156...hope that helps someone

Since I have a lift will I need longer lines going from front to rear or is that only for the side to side?

Only for the flexible line at the rear, the hard lines won't change, same for the front, only there are two flexible lines.

Well went to NAPA and Advance. Neither had prefit lines. NAPA was out of 5ft lines. NAPA did have lines that had fittings on them already. I reinspected all my lines and only one line "needs" replacement. The others look new as some were replaced when the lift went on.

Any ideas on the length or combinations of length to go from the front to rear hard line. I'm not even going to mess around with the soft lines unless something goes terribly wrong. They all look in good shape.

get yourself some twine and follow the lines pinching the twine to them every 12" or so, so you can get an accurate measurement of how much line you are going to need. you'll be fine with a bunch of the 3/16 lines from NAPA and the unions to put them together (302x2 i believe is the part number). using a flaring tool can be frustrating and takes time and practice to get it right, see another members post in the non-tech section about it. I would measure with twine for each section you need, and try to stay within 3 or 4 inches of that measurement (over that not under it ) to make sure you don't end up with too much extra line. that will also give you some room for error if your bends aren't as accurate as the factory ones.

do yourself a favor and get a brake line tubing bender for the right size line not one of those universal pieces of crap with all the different sizes on it, they can be difficult to use. in a pinch i've used a large socket to get smooth bends but again it takes practice. bending them by hand will bend and kink the lines unless you really know what you're doing.

Also, I havent seen anyone mention Line Wrenches yet. The fittings on brake lines are meant to give a little in the threads as they tighten down, to keep even pressure on the flare seat inside on the end of the tube. this means it is EXTREMELY easy to round off the fittings when taking them off and especially when putting them back on. Get yourself a decent set of line wrenches (not the discount no name brand at the parts store. If you are going to napa stay away from "Evercraft", thats the cheapo chinese tool line. get the ones that say NAPA Tools on them. Craftsman makes a decent set as well.) The cheap ones are not usually made to very close tolerances and can be a pain in the ass to work with. Your 2001 will be metric, so get the metric set. If you are replacing all of the lines you'll have a few different sizes to deal with so its better to have the whole set - it's only 3 double sided wrenches. Line wrenches look like a 6pt closed end wrench with a notch cut in it so you can slide it over the tube and grab the fitting tight all the way around, a regular open ended wrench will round the fittings right off.

At my NAPA we stock the lines in 8", 10", 20", 30", 40", and 60" (close to those anyway, i know at least of of them is X1" or something oddball like that). you should be able to get pretty close to your twine length with those numbers. remember to add about 1/2" to account for each union fitting you use. We also sell adapter fittings if you run into the problem Kastein posted about one line having a slightly larger fitting on one end, if you don't feel confident about making your own flare on the line once you cut it. My rule is if I'm working on brakes and something comes up that I've never done before, I won't touch it without someone there who knows what they're doing. I'll tear apart engines all day long - if I screw something up it wont GO... if I screw up the brakes it wont STOP.

Honestly bleeding the brakes is more difficult than changing out the lines themselves. you should be fine :thumbup:

Well whenever the rain god decides he's not angry anymore I'll have to do start this project. Rained me out today. Back to the parts store tomorrow. Hopefully I might be able to get away with not having to flare any ends. But with how cheap the lines are I might just buy a short one to practice on.

Front Pass Brake Line Replacement Help

Has anyone here replaced their front passenger hard brake line?

I've replaced almost all the others, but this one looks like a nightmare.

I can't see how you can get the 5-6' line bent and put into place in the same way as the original. They must put those in at the factory before the motor or the electrical loom.

Have people actually bent up their own hard lines, or are there other options for replacement?

Re: Front Pass Brake Line Replacement Help

tigerchief said:

Has anyone here replaced their front passenger hard brake line?

I've replaced almost all the others, but this one looks like a nightmare.

I can't see how you can get the 5-6' line bent and put into place in the same way as the original. They must put those in at the factory before the motor or the electrical loom.

Have people actually bent up their own hard lines, or are there other options for replacement?

Click to expand...

Patience is the key - I did mine, but the vehicle was off the road for a major overhaul. Not something you want to have to install to drive it to work in an hour, for sure.

Mark

Re: Front Pass Brake Line Replacement Help

mfascuba said:

Patience is the key - Not something you want to have to install to drive it to work in an hour, for sure.

Click to expand...

it's one of the bigger tests of your patience you will encounter on a Jeep. I hit the boneyard and cut out another line so I could replicate it before I started ripping mine apart.

I can't count the number of times I was under the Jeep when I should have been reaching in from the top and the number of times I was reaching in from the top when I should have been under it!

In all honesty, it shouldn't be that difficult to get a line in there-- I'm just a little obsessive/compulsive about making it look like it did from the factory.

yeah... screw that line :smsoap:

also OCD about brake lines looking good. I ended up cutting the line 6" below the pinch seam in the firewall on the passenger side and using a flare union since only the part along the right frame rail and in the right front wheel well was actually bad.