F150 Brake Lines

1995 F150 Eddie Bauer 4x4 5.0

So I got a call this morning from the airport. My wife, while driving my pickup, popped a brake line. Its sitting in the pay lit, so this should be a bitch. I don't know what line she popped, but I don't look forward to finding out. I'm not one to Mrs with brake lines often.

Should I have it towed home? (no I'm not asking if I should drive it.) are there better options than fabricating a new line for it? Flexible lines, maybe? I know I'll otherwise just be bending one to fit.

Also my bleeders are stuck. Tried blaster and the proper size wrench is slipping, so I stopped before rounding them last time. Any suggestions on that end?

Not looking forward to this job.

Thanks,
Nick

They make plugs for this sort of issue. Same as a brake line fitting, just no thru hole. determine which circuit it is, pull the line at the M/C, plug it, drive home one 1 circuit(GINGERLY!)

N Sperlo wrote: Also my bleeders are stuck. Tried blaster and the proper size wrench is slipping, so I stopped before rounding them last time. Any suggestions on that end? Not looking forward to this job. Thanks, Nick

when nothing else works it's time for the vise grips

Thanks to both of you. I was thinking vise grips as well. Tp, are these plugs for the metal lines, rubber lines, or are there some for each one?

The plug goes in the master cylinder

In reply to pilotbraden:

oooo. That would make sense.

(edit) my ld is kicking in. need to read more closely.

Careful with the vice grips you can snap off the bleeder. At this point I just replace the calipers / cylinder. Especially on something like a ford as they are usually inexpensive. To prevent this usually cover the pleaders with water proof grease. Typicality I use the stuff that is used on outboard motors.

depending on how the lines look you could splice into it... thats what I ended up doing on a friends 2k's suburban, the line runs between the frame and the body (or so it looked) along the drivers side, no way I could really get to it... so I spliced into it at the rear wheel well...

but if the rest of the line is rusty it just needs replaced... that was the case on my astro van, on that to get to the line you had to drop the fuel tank... so I rerouted the line...

Thanks, Dean. That should be useful. I know they can snap, but at that point what else are you going to do? I'll prepare to replace parts just in case.

Any idea who sells these plugs? Not Advance.

When I couldn't find brake line/MC line plugs I just made some.

Take a fitting that is the same size and thread and just weld/braze the end shut. I have never had a problem with failure of the plug but I only did this as a a short term fix such as what your'er doing.

Nice, Jim. That should work. I guess Isounded make sure the M/C didn't splode first....

Just so we're clear - one of the metal brake lines failed, not one of the rubber brake hoses? I've successfully gotten a car home after a brake line failed by crimping it off with a vise grip just upstream of the split in the line (it has to be replaced anyway so you're not going to hurt it any more.) Of course this is mentioned for conversational purposes only....for safety reasons I wouldn't recommend other people try it.

Use vice grips to crimp the line shut in a non crusty section. It may still leak, so bring extra fluid and drive very carefully, but it will get you home. As for bleeders, on calipers you hit it with a hammer on the part of the caliper where there isn't much metal between you and the bleeder threads, flexing the metal enough to break the rust free and let penetrating oil in. Wheel cylinders are too cheap to bother with.

IF it is an extended cab like my 250, there should be a union for the rear brakes under the drivers door on the frame. take it apart and just screw in a plug. Drive home carefully.

I find the rear hard line ALWAYS breaks from a nice little rust pinhole.

If you haven't looked at it yet, I'm guessing it's a rubber line. The hard lines do rust out but not as often as the rubber lines fail.

(Says the guy that's had two hard line failures on his pickup...)

Vice grip work on flex lines and hard lines in a pinch flod over hard line then clamp tight with vice grips use electric tape to hold the vice grips from bouncing around.

We've nursed many a BABE car to the next hotel by pinching off a line with vice grips. Do it carefully and drive slow.

As for bleeding, if you are at the point where you know failure is imminent (sounds like you are) then you have 2 options, replace the caliper/cylinder or line bleed it.

To line bleed you will be cracking loose the line going into the caliper/cylinder just enough so that air/fluid will seep out when the pedal is depressed, you dont wan to unscrew it all the way. 2 person bleed is required for this as there's no way to attach a vacuum or bleeder line. It's going to be messy but I've done it many times to hold me over until replacement of the caliper/cylinder was necessary.

I pounded mine flat with a hammer against the frame, doubled it over and pounded it flat again, drove it home and made a new line ('94 Bronco)

Mine was obviously a hard line.

Rusted out before the union. Waiting for a tow truck in the airport parking lot now. There's no safe way to get this to my driveway.

I'll be at minimum all front lines replaced.

Being towed now.

mine had been so mis-treated ( actually it's probably better to say ... neglected ) that I had to replace ALL the hard lines, got rid of the all ABS stuff .. the front calipers took 2+ hrs, a torch, and a 3# hammer to remove .... the front rotors were powder ( and the calipers were still that hard to get off) ... the only thing original that was saved were the rear drums ( all the needed was turned )

dculberson wrote: If you haven't looked at it yet, I'm guessing it's a rubber line. The hard lines do rust out but not as often as the rubber lines fail. (Says the guy that's had two hard line failures on his pickup...)

never had a rubber line fail, had countless hard lines rust out and burst.

i've driven home with vise grip clamped lines before. not fun but take it easy and you can always downshift to slow down.