That's awesome, I remember wandering around in Milan with our group and it was so cool being inside the wall with really tall buildings all around. Ya, Rome is cool and has a lot of fun stuff to do. I spent new years 2011 there, it was crazy fun. Personally my favorite Italian city is Florence. It's just so nice there. Slightly less tourism seemed like, but still a lot going on.

By the way, on my suggestion of changing the wrench, you still will probably want 2 wrenches, one on both bolt heads. Instead of twisting the bolt on the line, try holding it still and turning the hose. This works best with the hose disconnected from the caliper by the way.

djape1977 wrote:no big issue even if you do end up destroying har lines, you can buy a full set for lada online for less than 50e and it's a straight bolt-on for any old fiat

It's always an issue when you have to pay something with your own money! Ahah! Why pay more when you can do the job with a bit more calm and save some money?

Weelan wrote:That's awesome, I remember wandering around in Milan with our group and it was so cool being inside the wall with really tall buildings all around. Ya, Rome is cool and has a lot of fun stuff to do. I spent new years 2011 there, it was crazy fun. Personally my favorite Italian city is Florence. It's just so nice there. Slightly less tourism seemed like, but still a lot going on.

By the way, on my suggestion of changing the wrench, you still will probably want 2 wrenches, one on both bolt heads. Instead of twisting the bolt on the line, try holding it still and turning the hose. This works best with the hose disconnected from the caliper by the way.

Yeah, I agree with you, Florence is a really nice place!
However I've tried your method with the brake line and... F**K YEAH! I made it and all the hard lines are now free and safe!
I've placed a wrench on the bolt of the rubber hose


The vice grip pliers on the bolt of the hard line


And I've turned the wrench (on the left), keeping the vice grip (on the right) in place


Everything worked out perfectly (with a bit of anxiety to be honest! lol) and finally my brake stuff is out!



Now I still have to take off the brake discs but a part from that I just have to clean brackets, calipers, bolts/nuts (also inside the car's arches) and put everything back on the car!
Thanks a lot for your tips guys, much appreciated as always!

Riccardo

you still might be better off replacing those 40+yrs old brake lines. i've seen them fail miserably on first hard braking, and that's when you need them the most. and believe me, living on 1/3 of what you earn in italy, i very vell know what it means to spend your own money

djape1977 wrote:you still might be better off replacing those 40+yrs old brake lines. i've seen them fail miserably on first hard braking, and that's when you need them the most. and believe me, living on 1/3 of what you earn in italy, i very vell know what it means to spend your own money

I know that it would be better to change almost everything on the car, even the tranny is 40 years old and so is the engine, but I have to do what I'm able to do right now. In the future I want to change and upgrade some stuff on the car, but for now I'm fine with what I'm doing so far. You think I'm a rich guy who still asks for money to the parents and that my job makes me wealthy? The cost of the life is proportionated almost everywhere in the world and living in Milan and in Italy is an expensive business. My brother for example has a good job and is able to live alone with his girlfriend, while I still have to live with my father and my sister because I can't afford to rent an apartment by myself. Just the maintenance of my photographic gear takes me about a couple of monthly wage and I have to do it almost once a year, and so far I've already spent good money in parts and tools and I still have to buy new fluids, pads, rotors and so on. I do really care about the 124, but I have to go on by small steps. Changing hard lines in the future won't be a big deal since now I'll put on new hoses, new brake pump, rebuild the calipers and clean everything. However if I won't finish to put the restored brakes on before going back to work at the end of the month, maybe I'll be able to buy a new set of hard lines next month, so I'll change them next time I'll come here.

Riccardo

there is one more rubber line it is in the rear going from the body to the axle
eventualy change them all out

124JOE wrote:there is one more rubber line it is in the rear going from the body to the axle
eventualy change them all out

It's already out, but forgot to add it to the shot of the brake parts!
Also the hand brake cable is ready to be replaced, even if I still have to find a way not to make it go on the exhaust like the old one!

Riccardo

than again, regardless of how much you make and what's the cost of living, we buy the same parts at the same prices.

djape1977 wrote:than again, regardless of how much you make and what's the cost of living, we buy the same parts at the same prices.

Maybe for you is easier to save some money for your car. I've already spent some hundreds of Euro in less than one month and I had no vacations with friends to start working on the car. I'm happy to have been able to save the hard lines. And besides that, I can't find any Lada replacement for my brake system a part from the calipers and brake pads and they cost almost the same as the genuine Fiat parts.

Riccardo

RCSquadraCorse wrote:

djape1977 wrote:than again, regardless of how much you make and what's the cost of living, we buy the same parts at the same prices.

Maybe for you is easier to save some money for your car. I've already spent some hundreds of Euro in less than one month and I had no vacations with friends to start working on the car. I'm happy to have been able to save the hard lines. And besides that, I can't find any Lada replacement for my brake system a part from the calipers and brake pads and they cost almost the same as the genuine Fiat parts.

Riccardo

Maybe maybe, u can just send me that 69 ! I had mine on the street last nite, first time I drove it since spring,I can say this is a 99percent orgininal,

fiat218 wrote: Maybe maybe, u can just send me that 69 ! I had mine on the street last nite, first time I drove it since spring,I can say this is a 99percent orgininal,

Haha! I don't blame you for asking!
I bet it has been great to go back on the streets with your 124 and glad to know that is 99% original!

Riccardo

Yay for getting all the parts off!! Glad I could help!

Take your time man, replace the really necessary stuff that actually makes the car move and stop pretty well, so you'll keep really enjoying the car. I hear what both of you guys are saying, and having owned mine less than a year as well, I would love to pull the motor, get an engine rebuild, change all the shocks and springs, all the bushings, upgrade the brake hoses, pull the interior and repair rusty floors, ..... i could go on. I'd love to do all that right away. There's just no way that's reasonable. Budgeting is very important, otherwise in a few months I'll be broke and selling a project car.....

Oh and on the hand brake line. You may want to get more opinions, but basically that is stock placement, and the external damage that you see in the picture is just that, 'external' damage. you can also see what looks like a spring or something showing where the plastic coating has pulled away. That should be just a really stiff metal 'spring' for lack of a better term. It's really strong, I know from pulling on mine and trying to get my rear calipers off last night, they don't really move very much. So the damage you're seeing is like over 30 years with one cable being up against the exhaust, you'll be perfectly fine putting a brand new one in the same place, for possibly another 30 years haha.

Weelan wrote:Yay for getting all the parts off!! Glad I could help!

Take your time man, replace the really necessary stuff that actually makes the car move and stop pretty well, so you'll keep really enjoying the car. I hear what both of you guys are saying, and having owned mine less than a year as well, I would love to pull the motor, get an engine rebuild, change all the shocks and springs, all the bushings, upgrade the brake hoses, pull the interior and repair rusty floors, ..... i could go on. I'd love to do all that right away. There's just no way that's reasonable. Budgeting is very important, otherwise in a few months I'll be broke and selling a project car.....

Yeah, thanks a lot for the advice on the procedure Ryan!
For sure I'll take my time, I have no other chances! Ahah! Really, I wish I could spend more money on the car, but I'm just doing what it needs to have the car back on the road. Once finished I won't drive like a mad, hooning around and trying to drift every corner! I know that some things need to be replaced, but I'll do it later (or sooner if my wage will double in its own way! ). As you said, I don't want to sell the car because I go out of budget.

Weelan wrote:Oh and on the hand brake line. You may want to get more opinions, but basically that is stock placement, and the external damage that you see in the picture is just that, 'external' damage. you can also see what looks like a spring or something showing where the plastic coating has pulled away. That should be just a really stiff metal 'spring' for lack of a better term. It's really strong, I know from pulling on mine and trying to get my rear calipers off last night, they don't really move very much. So the damage you're seeing is like over 30 years with one cable being up against the exhaust, you'll be perfectly fine putting a brand new one in the same place, for possibly another 30 years haha.

Talking about the hand brake, I wasn't aware that the cable needs to go there under the exhaust!
My old line was engaging with just 2 clicks and it was really heavy! And when I took off the melted cable from the exhaust, all that part was very rigid! I was thinking about making a small bracket on the top and leave the hand brake bolts almost unscrewed to take off some tension from the line... but if you tell me that the old setup was correct, I think I will try to find some insulating material to put it between the rubber part and the exhaust, at least it won't melt again after the first hours of driving!

Riccardo

If the exhast is routed up close to the car as it is meant to be the parking brake cable will not touch it.

redcars wrote:If the exhast is routed up close to the car as it is meant to be the parking brake cable will not touch it.

Hmm... so I'll have to look for the right position of the exhaust... does anyone have an image of how the exhaust is held in place properly?
By the way, looking at this video of the Allison's exhaust installation, it seems that even here the hand brake cable goes on the exhaust, so I guess it's normal to have the rubber melted after just a few hours of driving...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Iznj48LV9g

Riccardo