In WAY over my head Brake line help

[georgeramos]

I was trying to remove the first brake hose. bought a Snap on flare nut wrench and everything. Had sprayed pb blast on there several times over the past week. When I thought it broke free it actually twisted and broke the copper line...

I am at a total loss.

[azruss]

A common fiat problem i'm afraid. now you are down to finding a new caliper or drilling and using an easy-out. With the rust issue, i don't have much hope for the easyout solution.

[georgeramos]

it broke at the body end, not the caliper end. The calipers came out fine and are rebuilt.

[azruss]

Missed that. I guess you could clean up the end of the copper line and re-flare it. Should be able to find a good bulkhead fitting from one of the clan. sure beats breaking it off at the caliper.

[georgeramos]

Heres what it looks like. about 3/8" of it is still attached to the now round flare nut. Im not certain theres enough to re-use the copper line as it might not reach.

[redcars]

Brake lines should be steel not copper. If they are copper replace the hole thing with steel brake lines.

[SLOSpider]

You may have enough slack from inside the engine compartment to feed some more line down and either get the old nut off or buy a new one and cut/reflare the line. I have a parts car I can see about taking the line off if you want.

[georgeramos]

That would be amazing! Thank you so much. I am working through how to get the line off at the other end. it seems i either need a stubby flare wrench or I may need to remove the master cylinder because I cant get the wrench over the nut...if you do remove it from your parts car Id love to know how you got at it.

Any thoughts on that? Also, any tricks to removing the other ones (at this same junction) without doing the same thing? There is no rust on anything, theyre just seized. I didnt try heat, maybe that might help.

[4uall]

Having gone through this exact same issue recently I would strongly urge you not to put heat near brake lines as there is the risk of pressure etc

This may help

http://forum.fiatspider.com/f08/viewtop ... ilit=brake

[SLOSpider]

I do as you did and soak with penetrating oil. You mat have to remove a line in front of the one you are trying to get at on the master cylinder. I don't recall having an issue getting to them. You can try an open end carefully and see if it budges if you cant get in there with the flare wrench.

[narfire]

I read here several years ago, one might try and actually tighten the fitting just the slightest tad before trying undoing the nut.
It has worked for me on several occasions. The penitrating fluid sure helps as well.

[georgeramos]

had to pull the master to get at the flare nuts on the bottom of the switch. got the passenger side off with no incident BUT the line is copper so it needs to be swapped out anyhow...Odd thing is the threading on the fittings is different. The fitting that went into the master and ran to the passenger side is a finer thread than the one on the drivers side that ran to the switch. I suspect foul play. Does it make sense that all the brake fittings would NOT be the same thread?

[azruss]

My guess is the copper line was a cheap fix and the fittings are not metric, all the treads should be the same.