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: Hard Brake line to the calipers?

Jeepin5.0
10-03-2004, 05:54 PM
I'm doin the rear brake lines on my 14 bolt. Hard line is cheap. Soft line is expensive. Can I run a piece of hard line straight to the caliper, or do i gotta put some soft line between the caliper and the hardline?
Thanks
Josh
Kyron
10-03-2004, 06:06 PM
You can do hard line all the way to the caliper .......... BUT....... the first time you have to remove the caliper you WILL wish you had a nice loop of braided in there :)
rock-rod
10-03-2004, 06:19 PM
I would not do it with floating calipers.

Even though the movement is slight, over time the caliper sliding back and forth will eventually fatique the hard line to the point that it will crack and break.

Now, if you have multi-piston calipers and the caliper is rigidly mounted (ie non floating), then hard line is OK.
87JeepWrangler
10-03-2004, 09:10 PM
im assuming since its a 14bolt, you did a disc brake swap on it. if so, i would agree with rock-rod... i wouldnt run just hard line. this is your brakes your talking about. in the end it will cost $40 or so more, but at least you'll know your brakes arent going to fail when you need them.
Erik D_lux
10-03-2004, 09:33 PM
use a soft line. The movement will mess up hard lines. I think I got my soft lines for no more then $10 each. Maybe they were even $5.
Pazuzu
10-03-2004, 10:32 PM
Go to a junk yard and find short lenghts of softline. I put a piece of 6 inch softline between the hardline and the rear drums on me 4Runner, so I don't have to open the brake system when I pull the axles out to drop the rear diff.
Old Scout
10-03-2004, 10:48 PM
Never go cheap when it comes to brakes and steering!
4x4Poet
10-03-2004, 10:55 PM
Never go cheap when it comes to brakes and steering!
I'm in your Amen corner, OS.

Don't soft lines on 14b discs help one rotate the bleeder scew to the uppermost postion for bleeding off the rotor with a block between the pads? I thought this was necessary sometimes to get out a sticky air pocket.
Beat95YJ
10-05-2004, 10:17 PM
I have an old car with a '79 Trans Am rear end with a factory hard tube to the floating calipers. It has a huge bend to allow for flex related to pad wear. However changing the pads pretty much requires seperating the caliper from the hardline. It sucks. Put a short flex line in. You will be much happier in the long run.