Today I started replacing the brake lines on my Spitfire. I thought
I'd share a few things I've learned.
The best procedure for removong the old lines:
At the front...
1. Loosen lines from MC.
2. Remove MC from bulkhead.
3. Remove PDWA from bulkhead.
4. Remove engine.
5. Remove steering rack.
6. Remove the under-engine dirt from your fingers, nah, don't bother.
7. Detach lines from the flexible hoses.
8. Remove old lines.
At the rear...
1. Detach lines from the flexible hoses.
2. Remove body from frame.
3. Remove bolt holding the rear T-fitting to the frame near the left
rear wheel.
4. Cut the line from the front with a large pair of metal snips.
5. Detach the T-fitting from the body.
6. Apply Liquid-Wrench and wait. Repeat.
7. Using vice-grips and channel-lock pliers, remove the lines from
the brass T-fitting.
Underneath...
1. Wonder how to detach the clips holding the fuel and brake lines to
the narrow channel in the frame.
2. Wonder how they were installed in the first place.
3. Go have a beer.
4. Resume tomorrow.
Some things I've learned from studying the brake line kit:
1. Any fitting can be called a union, even a PDWA.
2. Two items both labelled #1 need not be identical, which is a good
thing because the lines for front and rear circuits from the MC to
the union, I mean PDWA, have different threads.
3. An engineer presumably sober really can mix SAE and metric threads
in the same system, and the kit manufacturer had the good sense to
mark which was which on the fittings (though it wouldn't have
mattered because the threads wouldn't have mated incorrectly anyway.
3. Wonder of wonders, the number lines in the kit seems to match the
number coming off the car, though the exact details from underneath
have not yet been verified.
Whew. The things you learn when you do something you've never done
before.
Jim Muller
jimmuller@rcn.com
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