Help fast Brake leak

[Bouluki]

I have a 94 explorer with abs and its leaking a lot of brake fluid, I think the leak is in one of the three lines that run along the frame both the area it seems to be leaking in is covered by the gas tank. Is there a way i can check to see exactly where the leak is? If it does in fact seem to be in one of the 3 lines hidden behind the gas tank do I have to remove the gas tank to fix it? Basically I’m leaking a lot of brake fluid in the rear and I think it’s in one of those lines but I’m not sure so I would appreciate any advice in order to help me fix this safety issue? also is this a hard repair or can it be done in a few hours by a handy person? thank you

 

[DeRocha]

The rear brake line runs from the HCU hydraulic control unit (behind the radiator) to a mounting bracket on the driver's side frame rail pictured below. From here it connects to a brake hose which connects to a distribution block on top of the differential. The distribution block has lines for both the left and right wheels. to see where the line is leaking you can fill up the brake fluid reservoir and then have a friend step on the brake while you watch the brake line from below (wear safety glasses). Brake fluid is under lots of pressure and a pin hole will readily spray out and be very apparent.

See Rusted out brake line thread for info and pics.

 

[DeRocha]

btw the master cylinder is a dual braking system (front & rear). As such if your rear brakes or line are leaking it will not affect the front (and vice versa). The fluid in the brake fluid reservoir will go down, but the fluid in the front line will not be affected. To prevent air from entering the system I would keep the brake fluid reservoir maxed out.

 

[walterd140]

Old Army trick was to locate the leaking line, then take vise-grips before & after the leak & pinch the crap out of both spots in order to flatten them. Hopefully you compress the line enough to get you home without leaking any more.
But the downside is you are on 3 sets of pads, will feel different during braking, and the crimp could open up & hemmorage fluid worse then before.

Rust eats at the brake lines like mad. If you are replacing 1 line, be ready to change a few more. I found that when you remove the weak link that another opens up. I think NAPA or any chain parts store sells the tubing in various lenghts with fittings on the ends. Inspect all of your lines & buy suspect bad ones all at one time. Last time I went the 30" lines were like $5. So a few more shorts will save you headaches later.

Walter

 

[Bouluki]

Thanks guys for the help, i think I'm going to replace them all in one shot. Does anyone know while i have to remove the gas tank in order to replace the line that runs from the front to rear?

 

[nitsuga]

You could, but with a little bit of wiggling I was certainly able to do it. Besides, dropping the fuel tank is probably more pain than it's worth.

From the wonderful time I had doing it, I say avoid dropping the tank unless you absolutely have to.

 

[mtuboi86]

brake lines

I had one of those brake lines start leaking as well a few months ago. I had a friend replace it for me. He just left the old line in there as to not disturb the other brake lines and create more problems. He just cut it off and ran a new line along where the old one is.

 

[DeRocha]

Thanks guys for the help, i think I'm going to replace them all in one shot. Does anyone know while i have to remove the gas tank in order to replace the line that runs from the front to rear?

As the others have indicated you can run new hard line between the gas tank and frame rail; However you will NOT be able to remove the old line as it is held in place by the white clips shown below. There is very little room between the gas tank and frame rail and even with the clips removed from the frame (but still on the brake line) I couldn't just pull the line out. When I replace this line on my truck I pushed out the pins from the frame rail so they were floating, but I still couldn't remove the old line without dropping the tank.. Since I off-road my vehicle I wanted the rear brake line to be very secure in the frame rail mounting clips and not rubbing on anything that may eventually cause a leak. As such I dropped the tank, removed the old line and secured the new hard line in the mounting clips.

Fuel tank dropped

 

[quicklook2]

cool pic.

worth 1000 words.

 

[Bouluki]

okay thank you for all the help i think I'm going to try and redo all the brake lines in the rear and run the one from front to back next to the existing one, any tips to doing this? is it hard to snake a new line through? i would greatly appreciate any other quick tips since you guys have already been very helpful and have a lot more knowledge about this stuff than me thank you again for all the help.

 

[nitsuga]

Before I took my old lines out, I made a wire template of them by taking a piece of solid core wire and zip-tying it to the existing lines.

This allowed me to forgo the constant crawling out from under the vehicle to make sure my bend was right. It also helped a lot to have a visual aide directing me what exactly I should do.

Also, I'd buy a tubing bender. Seriously, you can buy a decent one for $20, a nice one for $50--it's worth it if you ask me. In case you decide to forgo that, bend on an edge of a table. It prevented kinks for me before I bought my tubing bender. Buy a few lines of each length you need, if you're getting lines with the fittings on already. I know that running back to the store after kinking the line is no fun, and there's nothing wrong with having some extra lines.

For routing the cable, I attached a piece of fishing line to one end and my brother held the line in position while I pulled on it.

Besides that, there are the minor things, such as keeping the fitting where it's supposed to be, using a flare nut wrench, using the proper fitting and flare (standard flare and standard fitting), bleed after you're done, and so on.

 

[DeRocha]

As mentioned get a bunch of different lengths of brake line with fittings attached, don't forget unions (just return what you don't use). Tape the fittings to the ends to make sure they don't move (nothing worse than bending up a line to find you have both fittings on the same side :fire: ) I ripped out my hard line and bent it up using both a tube bender ($6 at AutoZone) and mainly my hands. The autozone bender worked great, but cannot make really tight bends like the more expensive models..