Braided Flexible Brake Lines

[Ldino21]

I want to redo all the hard Stainless steel lines with Braided Flex lines on my 66 Roadster. Has anyone done this before?? Who was the supplier??

Secondly I have a couple of suppliers who can do it, but they want me to send them my old lines which are too deteriorated, if anyone did it before do you have the lengths, or as anyone willing to measure theirs.

Thanks

Lou

[TR]

Hey Lou,

I think you mean you would like to replace all of the rubber lines with braided stainless ones? They are available from Fairlady Products...

I don't think you would want to replace the hard lines (that are carbon steel, hence the corrosion) with flexible ones, it would add a lot of compliance to the system...It would make your pedal mushy.

Lengths of hardline are available already flared at most auto parts stores, or you can buy the nuts and bulk line and flare it yourself.

Take your time with brake stuff, you really want to get it right!

TR

[Ldino21]

Thanks TR

That's why its great to ask questions like this on the forum.

Lou

[TR]

No problemo, glad I could be of some help!

There is a lot of info on brake line flares on the main 311s site if you want to do it yourself...It took me a couple of afternoons to plumb my car with all new lines, but I had the body off of the frame and the engine out = easy access...I used the cheapo flaring kit and bender with a high quality tubing cutter I already had, but I bet the cheapo tubing cutter would do the job, too. There is a bit of a write up of what I did in the engine swap section of the main site.

I also just remembered that I priced the bits to make the flexible lines and it came very close to what Fairlady sells their set for...

Have fun and good luck!

[spl310]

If you want to replace the hard lines with stainless steel (I would love to, but cannot afford it myself) check http://www.classictube.com/ as they list the Datsun 2000 (1600s are the same of course). As I recall, you have to search for both the 2000 and the 311 to get it all. Best to call them...

[S Allen]

Also, Pegasus Racing and or Summit carries all of the bits needed to put braided stainless steel lines on. The parts list is located on the site at http://www.311s.org/tech/brakes/brakelines.html

Steve

[Ldino21]

If you want to replace the hard lines with stainless steel (I would love to, but cannot afford it myself) check http://www.classictube.com/ as they list the Datsun 2000 (1600s are the same of course). As I recall, you have to search for both the 2000 and the 311 to get it all. Best to call them...

The only thing Sid is that I have a 66 with a single Brake master reservoir so I don't thing a 69-2000 Brake line setup would be the same, although that might be nice when I start to restore my 67-2000

[S Allen]

Lou,

The 66's have the same three lines the later cars have. The single master has nothing to do with the lines.

Steve

[spl310]

On the hard lines, the rear lines are the same, the clutch hard line is the same, the front brake lines are the same, and I believe that you can use one of the two master cylinder lines to round out the all stainless setup. You may have to gently tweak the lines, but you will have to do that with any of them anyway....

Of course, I could be wrong....

[S Allen]

I missed the HARD part the first couple of times. Guilty of reading into and not reading. Any way, I think you have your anwers.

Steve

[spl310]

I think that we all got a little confused on this one, but it looks like the sources and information made it out. I do have a question on the stainless flex lines though - how do those of you that installed them like them?

[TR]

I have been happy with mine. Cosmetically they are 200% better, engineering-wise they are far superior (abraision, expansion, etc.). Performance...I cannot give a direct comparison because there was a year between driving a car with and without...TR

[Ldino21]

OK now my interested is piqued again!!

For you guys who have done this before:

This might sound a little basic but I want to make sure, all the lines are basically pre formed to the correct size or do they come in straight lengths that I need to bend?

Secondly is the biggest differnce in the master cylinder setups how the go into the relative junction boxes and not how they are routed underneath correct??

Any other answers would be helpful

[Ldino21]

I probably confused everyone with my original question and I will try to explain it. It looks like Sid knows what I was talking about.

I already have the 3 flexible lines from Fairlady Products, I also have the new lines for the brakes themselves.

I was talking about the Hard lines that run along the frame, when the frame was taken apart to be powder coated the brake lines went somewhere and we can't find them, I have all the connectors but no brakelines.

I want to replace them thinking flex lines would be neat, but if that would be too mushy, than probably Stainless Steel is the way to go, I just didn't have the measurements for the lines to know what lengths to get etc.

[TR]

Stainless steel lines are nice for all of the reasons that makes stainless nice in any application. SS is also very hard to flare compared to the more common steel lines.

Those kits from Classic Tube look really nice, $200 for everything in SS is a good price considering that the tubing and fittings alone cost ~50 and the cheapest tools would be another ~50.

In regard to the single versus dual master cylinder and how that affects the tubing (guys please confirm this), I think the brake light switch in the early car is close enough to the pressure loss switch in the later car that the lines would be 100% compatible, you would simply have one extra line.

That would be a really simple way to go, especially if you are not comfortable making the flares yourself. Otherwise, buy the bulk line and tools from Summit and dig in! TR