Small Ford 8.8 brake line problem...

Hello all, I am finishing up the conversion on my 8.8 for my 88 XJ and I ran into a bit of an issue. I have done the leaf spring perches, and the shock mounts and am finishing up the brake line mounts tomorrow before I need to bring the welder back (one bolt left to do). What I ended up doing is making a couple small tabs to mount the lines on. I was planning to use 2 passenger side lines, and then hardline from those to the t-block of a wrangler hose bolted to the axle. After I did the shock mounts, I had to change the location of the driers side mount and weld it to the spring perch. Not a problem, the line is a bit tighter than I would have liked, but it will be fine. On the passenger side, since I had the extra room I decided to weld the mount tab to the axle tube. I used the old passenger side soft line for mock up on both sides and the length was fine. No my issue is this:

When I put the new line on the passenger side mount, the line is very tight and I know there is enough slack for the line to move safely. I had a few questions about a possible solution.

- Is there another kind of Ford softline I could use that is a bit longer and still the same fittings on both ends?
- Is there a line from something else I could use that would have the same hardline fitting and would be a bit longer?
- Towards the front of the caliper, where the soft line bolts to the caliper there is a tab that prevents the brake line from moving, would it be possible to just grind that off and rotate the line 90 degrees? (that would solve my shortness issue)

Any other ideas or suggestions?

I can get some pictures tomorrow if that might help to explain a bit more what I am talking about.
Thanks for any help that you can provide. I have fallen quite a bit behind on this project and I really need to get this rear axle done so I can move onto the other stuff.

Thanks again, I hope to hear back soon,

Paint

I'm having the same issue with mine currently as well. I am probably leaning towards some xj front lines. I definitely wouldn't grind the edge off of the caliper, i think it's important to keep the line from twisting and having things come loose and leak like the banjo bolt.
There is a place here in Murfreesboro tn where i'n located at called patco belt and hose specialists who make custom hoses with any ends and fittings, I've been told that they can make it probably way cheaper than i can buy New soft lines for. So if there is a place like that in your area you might wanna check then out. I'm about to go talk to the guys at patco and see what i can come up with. I'll keep you updated on the results, otherwise i'll probably try using stock front brake lines off of the xj.

klint96xj said:

I'm having the same issue with mine currently as well. I am probably leaning towards some xj front lines. I definitely wouldn't grind the edge off of the caliper, i think it's important to keep the line from twisting and having things come loose and leak like the banjo bolt.
There is a place here in Murfreesboro tn where i'n located at called patco belt and hose specialists who make custom hoses with any ends and fittings, I've been told that they can make it probably way cheaper than i can buy New soft lines for. So if there is a place like that in your area you might wanna check then out. I'm about to go talk to the guys at patco and see what i can come up with. I'll keep you updated on the results, otherwise i'll probably try using stock front brake lines off of the xj.

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There is a place that will make lines by me, but it is kind of expensive. Great lines though as I understand it. I also thought about the XJ front lines though like right after that happened lol. I have the old front lines from my XJ (with the lift now I am using YJ front lines) so I will check the fit with the front lines. I just hope I can find them still lol. Please let me know how it works out for you. If my camera will turn on in the garage (seriously cold out there right now) I will try to get some pics of it with the issues, and then if I can find my old XJ lines, try the fit with those.

Thanks for the tip.

Paint

I am not sure on fit with the XJ front lines. Make sure that (1) the banjo bolts are the proper size and fit, and (2) the hoses aren't so long that they drape down and get ripped off by a stump or rock.

kastein said:

I am not sure on fit with the XJ front lines. Make sure that (1) the banjo bolts are the proper size and fit, and (2) the hoses aren't so long that they drape down and get ripped off by a stump or rock.

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I will check before I make anything final for sure. Going through all the work on the thing that I am so I don't want something as simple as a brake line failure causing me to crash to ruin all this work lol. It was 8-9 degrees Fahrenheit last night, and even colder out tonight. Did not get a chance to get out to the garage today, so I will get out there tomorrow to check that out. I just hope they fit ok, save me a lot of trouble lol.

Paint

Well, managed to dig out my old XJ front lines. The bolts seems to fit all around, but the line is 6" too long for my application. I would still have to move the tab so that is a no go. I keep looking at the line on the caliper, and if I could just rotate the line 90* clockwise, the length would be fine. A friend of mine works for a Ford place, I will call him tomorrow and see if he can think of anything. I completely forgot about calling him even to talk to him about this lol. Hopefully he will have a suggestion.

Anyone else have any ideas by chance?

Thanks again for the input,

Paint

I managed to get a couple of pics tonight in the garage with my phone, not the greatest quality due to lack of light and that it is a blackberry, but here is where I am at so far...

Drivers side is good to go:



The bolt above the vent line there is where I am mounting the YJ rear main hose. Managed to get my little flux core mig welder to do it lol. I still need to grind the weld smooth, and grind some more of the slag off but all things considered, once I sort out the passenger side issue, the axle is ready to remount. Well, that and the new diff cover And of course fill it and do the hardlines, but I think I am going to wait till it is on the Jeep for that. I need to get the thing off the jack stands and start on other stuff. WAY to far behind on this... Sorry for rambling like this... lol


Passenger side issue:

You can see the bend in the line at the caliper, that is using the old line that I originally used for mock up. When I put the new line on there, that line/bend was extremely tight on that side of the axle. If I can replace it with another standard line, I would much rather just do that. Or if there was some kind of other Ford line I could use there that would let me rotate it. If I could just rotate that caliper mount 90* clockwise though I would be fine.



Light got in the way here, but I moved the spring plate and u-bolts to show you all the spring perch better. If the concensus is to just move the mount, I can probably do it with the little mig welder I have I guess. It did manage to do the main line bolt without too much trouble so I can give it a shot I guess... I would still rather keep the mount where I have it though, a bit more tucked out of the way there. Oh, and before I get this suggestion, Yes I could move it more to the right, but the hose started to rub against the u-bolt, so I opted to move it just out of reach from that...


Thanks again for the help and info.
Paint

P.S. Only 3 other people have seen these pictures, non of my other friends (who I know aren't on here anyways) have seen them so I figure it is ok to post these here...

Out with the old:


In with the new:

Well, I guess the HF welder is much worse than I thought lol. I was grinding down the weld around the mainline bolt today, and I wanted to make sure the bolt would still be strong, so I hit it a few times with a rubber mallet. Well, after a couple soft hits, the whole bolt popped off with the weld... I figured I might have just taken off too much weld, so I cleaned up both axle and bolt, re-welded it to the tube and made a large weld puddle, or at least what I thought would help it penetrate the tube more, and spent a good chunk of time welding this thing again. I also spent a long time carefully grinding and tapering the weld bead down so as to not take too much off this time... Well, decided to test it again, and low and behold, it broke off again. The entire bolt and bead just breaks off...

This really sucks as I decided to just give in earlier today and move the passenger side line mount to the spring perch like I did the drivers side. I had figured, it held the bolt ok, it should be able to do the tab... Well man was I wrong lol. I guess my little 90a flux core just doesn't spit out enough heat for this kind of stuff...

The welder I had been using will not be available again until February, and I really want this axle back under my Jeep so I can do other stuff till them. Guess I will either have to bring it to my buddy's house and use his welder, or talk my other friends neighbor, maybe I can get in and use his for a bit...

Anyone happen to have a mig welder they might want to sell? Please pm me if so. Thanks again to all.

Paint


P. S. I have not been able to find any kind of a good write-up for doing the brake lines on an 8.8 swap, thinking maybe I will make a writeup for this and post it here... Any thoughts?

Did you already know how to weld? My first few welds were really, really lousy, even using a decent welder rated for the thickness of metal I was using (1/8".) I've welded 1/4" plate together with it now and it's been holding my leaf springs to the frame for months. It takes some practice. Mine is a 90 amp Lincoln MIG/fluxcore box - almost always used on fluxcore.

Once you get a real pretty bead going, you won't really want to grind it smooth. I actually prefer the "stack of dimes" look over a ground-smooth weld most of the time.

kastein said:

Did you already know how to weld? My first few welds were really, really lousy, even using a decent welder rated for the thickness of metal I was using (1/8".) I've welded 1/4" plate together with it now and it's been holding my leaf springs to the frame for months. It takes some practice. Mine is a 90 amp Lincoln MIG/fluxcore box - almost always used on fluxcore.

Once you get a real pretty bead going, you won't really want to grind it smooth. I actually prefer the "stack of dimes" look over a ground-smooth weld most of the time.

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I do know how to weld yes. I have no welding certifications, but I do know how to weld. The welder I have only has a switch for the voltage, Min/Max. For whatever reason it isn't holding. It could be something with the wire though too. The wire that is on it I got from someone and put on the welder before I knew really anything about welding. I will look at the spool, make sure it is the right kind of wire... That did not even occur to me until I was leaving class. I would still rather use something with more power though, better penetration, better welds...

Thanks again,

Paint

OK, long as you know how to weld... I would blame the machine or the wire.

Do you have the polarity set right? I completely forgot about that the first time I did MIG welding with my own welder. I'd only ever done MIG on a machine a friend already had set up for it previously :dunce:

kastein said:

OK, long as you know how to weld... I would blame the machine or the wire.

Do you have the polarity set right? I completely forgot about that the first time I did MIG welding with my own welder. I'd only ever done MIG on a machine a friend already had set up for it previously :dunce:

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I do yes. It's not the greatest welder. Has some odd issues... I have one lined up to use on Monday though so... I'll be fine for now with the rest of the rear axle mounting...

On that welder there is no way to change it. Could possibly tear into the thing completely to try and switch it over, but I'd rather just get the right kind of welder...

Thanks again,

Paint