This past weekend I was upgrading the brakes on my Mustang. A couple of weeks before I was working on the Datsun (replacing the diff) and naturally I had to disconnect the rear lines.
I'm now at the point I'm tired of dripping brake lines. In the past I've sometimes used little zip lock baggies wrapped around the line but that's messy as well.
So out of curiosity how many of you actually use brake line plugs when doing this work?
nope. what you need is a "pedal prop", to depress the brake pedal an inch or so. this puts the MC pistons past the compensation ports between the reservoir and the bore, which stops the fluid from dripping.
I have them, but seldom use them. I tend to do everything required before undoing the line, then swap the new part on quickly. I really hate it when somebody lets the master cylinder go dry. You are just making work.
Theoretically, if you have a brake pedal holder, you can push and hold the pedal down an inch or two, which will cover the ports in the master cylinder, thereby stopping the dribble.
This will get me pilloried, but I will gently clamp the hose off with a small vice grip if I need to. "Oh! The humanity! Rubber brake hoses are the most fragile thing in the universe!" Yeah, no. Some hoses used to come with a warning in the package that I was supposed to lay them out after taking them out of the box, and never bend them... You know these are going on a car that's going to be driven at -40, right? If your hose can't be bent,. I don't want it.
Got a bit sidetracked there, but its a thing for me.
AngryCorvair (Forum Supporter) said:nope. what you need is a "pedal prop", to depress the brake pedal an inch or so. this puts the MC pistons past the compensation ports between the reservoir and the bore, which stops the fluid from dripping.
I do this at work if I'm doing something more involved than swapping a caliper or a hose.
Swap a caliper: let it drip for the 3 seconds it takes to swap the hose to the new caliper.
Swap a hose: clamp the old hose, change everything over but the hardline, then swap that.
When I did the brake lines for the 9" in my RX-7, I deliberately routed them in such a way that, to remove the rearend, you can leave the hydraulics intact. Handbrake cables come off, a couple zipties for the axle hardlines get cut, one bolt releases the flex hose from the housing, then unbolt the calipers and hang them up in the wheelwell.
In my defense, to make the cables reach the calipers, I had to clock the calipers so far down that the bleeders won't release all the air. So, bleeding the rear brakes is to be avoided as much as possible.
In reply to Streetwiseguy :
I've seen folks clamp off the hoses before.
As for bleeding; I typically pump fluid in from the bleed screw first. This seems to cut down on the time in a big way.
I'm always skeptical about crimping the hoses.
I just let em drip on a piece of cardboard unless it's going to be a while, then I'll usually do the AngryCorvair method. I have found some cars where that pedal trick doesn't seem to work, but most do.
The brake pedal prop is a game changer. That made replacing some hard lines in the engine bay of my wife's car so much easier.
I also use either the Indiana Jones method or a pedal prop.
I've not done it recently, but in the not too distant past, I've used a short wooden pencil. If you jamb it straight into the hose fitting, the wood will compress enough and in such a way as to hold it in place and prevent the line from dripping. Perhaps not the most elegant solution, but it works.
You'll need to log in to post.
