Brake banjo bolt copper washers

Hey guys,

While re-building the suspension/steering system on my 74 REPU I decided to replace the brake hoses. Well I have the new ones on, and was waiting to have someone help me bleed them. I noticed that around the banjo bolts on the calipers it is wet wit fluid as I have had them gravity bleeding a little bit. I decided to make a mess and take it apart to have a look at the copper crush washers which looked fine when I had them out before. well under closer examination they don;t appear to be in very good shape. Also they are a larger diameter inside than the banjo bolt itself. Is that normal? Where can I get new crush washers for this application?

Here are some lousy pics of them:

Rock Auto, AA, AZ etc. oughta have em

Should be able to get either an assortment or specific ones from your FLAPS nearby.

Is it smart to replace these every time you remove them anyway? RA doesn't seem to list them.

I have some of them in my miscellaneous drawer. Come dig thru it. They sell small packages with various sizes for a few bucks at advanced.

Some people may reuse them. Washers crush when torqued and deform to surface imperfections so I replace 'em every time they're removed. Bought 'em by the 10 or 12/ bag so they're always some on the shelf.

In general, they are intended to be single-use parts. I've reused them in a pinch. Sometimes you get lucky and they don't leak.

I've heard of people annealing them to make them reuseable.

But don't make it difficult. Take the banjo bolts and washers to a hardware store, an auto parts store or even Home Depot. Get a copper or aluminum washer that's the same size or close to it. As you've seen, the fit doesn't need to be exact, it just needs to fit under the head of the bolt and the banjo fitting without any voids exposed. Voila.

Also, when tightening the banjo bolts, I find tighten-loosen- tighten a few times will bed them in better.

In a nutshell: these washers are something any DIYer should have a selection of "in stock" just in case. They're cheap, don't take up much room and can save your bacon at 11pm when you're trying to get a car back together so you can get to work the next day.

I've never checked, but I'll bet Harbor Freight sells a package with about 100 of them of different sizes...

Ha, 80.

http://www.harborfreight.com/80-piece-copper-washer-assortment-67526.html

Yeah for brakes I'd get new ones. You can get away with reusing them many times where there's no pressure being contained and the torque isn't too high, like on oil drain plugs for example.

Most parts stre have them in the red stand up "HELP" displays. As above you'll need to seat them twice tighten -loosen - tighten to make then bed in to the surfaces.

You can reuse the old ones too just hang from a wire and heat with propane torch untill a dull glow and let cool slow. Do not help cool let'em air cool.

This is in rare form but the harbor freight ones are too good in that they don't crush stick with parts store ones here

I used to just turn them over when in a pinch.

worked every time.