Brake lines, fuel lines and bears, Oh My!!! | Page 3 | Ford Explorer Forums - Serious Explorations

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Brake lines, fuel lines and bears, Oh My!!!

Dude if you have AAA get them to tow it to the garage for you, it'd be free wouldn't it?
 



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Yes, AAA would be free.

Problem is, if the mechanic doesn't want to touch it, or I don't like the price, I need to pull out the stereo before I decide the next step, not sure if AAA will tow it back to my house...

Mike
 






oh dont get cold feet. its really not that bad of a job to do. 1 good day at it an it will be good as new again.
 






I had myself convinced that was a good idea too. But, the truck is really rusting underneath (and under the hood), has 280,000 miles and leaks just about every fluid imaginable.

Damn thing starts and runs great though, which makes this a VERY hard decision...

Mike
 






i know you have said before this is your back up truck,but for the cost of repairing it yourself is much cheaper then sending it to a shop. a few buxs put into to it an who knows you might get 300k out of her.
i know about rusty trucks, thats what mine was. the rockers where so far gone that it was into the floor boards. i bought mine this way.my truck was a basket case that was left for dead on a dealerships trade in lot. a few weekends an a few $$$ later it became my dd.
 






I'm thinking if I can get the garage to fix this for $200, that's worth my free time.

Mike
 






yea that would be a good price.
 






I guess it depends on what they are going to fix for $200. I suspect it may be just the front to rear line. Once they get it, they may hit you up for the rear flex line, across the axel line, and wheel cylinders (if the can't get the bleeders open). And all that is before they get to the front. Did they tell you what the $200 covers?
 






Haven't even discussed it yet. $200 is just about the amount I'm willing to spend on this repair at this point.

Even if I can just get them to do the difficult lines at this point, I can do the rest. Who knows, in this economy, they might go for that. We do give them a decent amount of work (oil changes, inspections, other repairs, etc.).

At a minimum, it also needs a windshield (covered by insurance) and wiper motor to pass inspection.

Mike
 






OK...

This might get resurrected after all!

My 94 Exporer has been sitting all summer, waiting for me to make a decision on the brake line replacement. Now that winter is approaching, I'm starting to remember all the reasons I like to have this truck around (back-up car, firewood moving, etc.), even though it's got 280,000 miles and a pile of nuisance issues.

As irony would have it, the brake lines went on my dad's car, so I helped him replace them over the last two weekends (if you read this whole thread, you will see that it was my dad who talked me out of fixing these lines on my Explorer in the spring...).

Anyway, one question for the experts here. What are the symptoms of NOT bench bleeding a MC?

After we replaced and bled all the lines on my dad's car (89 Buick), the pedal is solid, and no more air is coming out of the bleeders. However, in the MC, when the pedal is pressed and released, air can be seen moving through the rear chamber of the fluid reservoir.

Apparently, the MC was allowed to go dry before we changed the lines. We didn't bench bleed the MC. So, the question is, is the MC bad, or is this just a result of not bench bleeding it when the lines were changed?

Mike
 






wow can beleave you havent changed them out yet. i had to replace mine the weekend cause of a line breaking on the way home from work. took me 5 hours in total to replace them all also with a few breaks added in there.
not bench bleeding the master can hold pockets of air in the master making it hard to get rid of the air.
 






FIVE HOURS??? WOW!!! It took me a whole day to get the old ones off my dad's Buick, another whole day to put them back. How did you get that done so fast?

One thing we did was use a roll of tubing, which meant we had to flare our own ends. Had to buy short "adapters" to get new fittings, which meant we had to cut all of those in half to get the fittings off.

Obviously, if I could buy everything premade up front, it would go a lot faster.

Can you tell me what lengths and with what fittings all the lines are? That would help tremendously.

Mike
 






i used a roll of tubing also. i own a good flaring tool for many years now.
everything was 3/16 line. so a roll of tubing an tube nuts will do it. the 3 lines comming out of the abs motor have iso flares on them. witch is a different flare. the lines going into the rubbber flex lines have a dubble inverted flares.
the driver side line is about a foot long. the pass is is about 5" long an the 1 for the rear is about 8" long.(i have a sport)
 






Thanks.

The Buick had 4 lines, two for the front and two separate ones from the MC to the back. No ABS though...

What brand/model flare tool do you have?

We were using the one from AutoZone. It was OK once we got the hang of it, but it was easy to make flares that were off-center. The Buick used bubble (ISO) flares.

I really want that Eastwood tool...

I'm still very humbled by your 5 hours. I'll be happy with two days...

Mike
 






well im in canada so no auto zone here.
but i have a rigid flare kit model 345. home depot has them without the mandrel.
for the iso flares i just do a single flare.
 












well sorry to hear the old girl had to go out this way, but good luck with your sell.
 






I agree, but she gave me a good long life (280,000 miles!). Hopefully the 04 will live up to the 94's standards for longevity.

Crappy part is, I was just getting ready to give it all sorts of love, I was going to fix everything but the body. I will really miss being able to use it for firewood duty (toting wood, chainsaws, gas, etc. plus towing the trailer), without worrying about getting the newer truck dirty...

Mike
 






I ran out of time to remove my stereo, etc. this past weekend, so it hasn't gone to the junkyard yet (probably won't have time for a few more weeks now).

Anyway, started right up and ran great! If anyone needs any parts, or wants a cheap parts truck, let me know. More details here:

http://www.explorerforum.com/forums/showthread.php?t=245019

Mike
 



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i had a leaky HCU and did my kinda write up for bypassing. ive read they are unreliable and mine looks like the PO replaced it once. i bypassed it with new brake line but all they had were 4ft lenghts so i have two one from MC and another from rear and short peice in middle. one of my fittings is leaking. i think i did a bad flare ill do it again and post my results.
 






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