new replacement brake hose doesn't fit (needs to be bent into shape???)

[LMHmedchem]

Hello,

Today I replaced the passengers front brake hose on my 2002 XLT 4.6L 4WD. It was a pain to get the fitting out of the old hose as expected, but I was able to get the new part installed. There is a major issue however. The steel tubing on the lower end of the hose where the banjo bolt connects to the caliper is not anywhere near the same shape as the hose that was on there.

Here is a picture,

You can see the new hose in the background, which is installed, and I am holding the old hose in front in the position it would be if it was connected to the caliper. You can see the banjo bolt sticking out of the caliper where the block attaches. The OE hose goes down below where it attaches the the caliper and is bent up. If you follow the old hose in the picture above you can see that it makes kind of a "J" shape.

The new hose is installed, but you can see that the metal part of the hose is a very different shape and will not connect to the caliper in the same way.

Looking at various brake hoses on RockAuto (including the MotorCraft part), all of the replacement hoses see to look like this. This is assuming that the pictures are of the actual part and are not just representative brake hoses. None of them have the "J" shape that is on the original hose. They are not all bent in the same way as the one above, some of them look even straighter.

This leads me to believe that you are supposed to bend the part into the correct shape yourself. If that is true, I am not sure why the steel part of the hose isn't just straight. The bends that are already there will make it more difficult to bend to the shape it needs to be in.

What is the correct procedure here? Do I need to bend this to get it to fit or does it go on differently than the OE part did? I can pick up a pair of tube bending pliers but I don't want to try this until I know a bit more about what I need to do. it may be possible to attach the hose block 90 degrees turned from how it normally would be so that the metal tube points straight back. Is this what you are supposed to do. I am looking for videos but I thought that now would be a good time to ask. I am sure I am not the only one here who has ever replaced a brake hose.

Advice is appreciated as always,

LMHmedchem

 

[LMHmedchem]

I tried again with this today and there is just no configuration that will allow the hose to attach to the caliper. Even if I force it, the tubing is just not the right shape. If the flexible part of the hose were longer, or some of the fittings would swivel, then it might be possible but that part just doesn't fit.

I would be very surprised if I am the only one here who has had to replace a brake hose. Has anyone else run into this? Did the part fit out of the box or did it need to be modified?

I would order a different hose but most of the parts on RockAuto look like they have the same shape as the one I took off. This includes the $117 Motorcraft part. The Centric part looks like it may have the correct shape but it's hard to tell from the picture. On the part I got, and most of those pictured, the tubing actually bends in the opposite direction from where it should. I have certainly had brake lines, transmission fluid lines, etc, that came straight and you were supposed to bend yourself but if this is a bend it yourself part, why is it already bent and not straight. Some of the bends are in places that will make it even more difficult to bend to the proper shape. I am really confused by this.

I get quite annoyed when manufactures use "OE" all over their listing and the part turns out to not even remotely resemble "OE". I wish that companies like RockAuto would pay more attention to things like this.

I guess tomorrow I will try to bend the tubing to a shape that will fit.

LMHmedchem

 

[410Fortune]

Replacing a brake line almost always requires you to bend the new
Line to shape
They sell a simple hand tool for making smooth bends, however for the most part I just bend them very carefully by hand
Sometimes thanks to ford using a mixture of metric bubble flare and standard hose sizes, sometimes we have to cut and re flare the lines ourselves in order to re use the factory
Metric fittings

Brake line replacement is pretty basic, and everything should thread together rather easily, if it does not then something is wrong, bends need to be made to that the lines go together straight, this way you get a good
Safe seal at each flare

 

[LMHmedchem]

Thank you very much for the reply. I really appreciate the information.

In this case, the issue is with the section of 3/8" steel tubing that connects the flexible rubber brake hose to the caliper. I am not replacing the metal brake lines that run from the reservoir to the hose mount brackets. The metal lines are still in good shape as far as I can see. If you look at the picture in my first post, the tubing is pre-bent, but very much in the wrong direction. With the hose bracket installed, the tubing points to the back of the truck instead of out toward the caliper. I don't see how this could ever be installed on any caliper. It just doesn't fit at all. The part is RAYBESTOS BH382537, which is clearly listed as the correct part at RockAuto.

Looking at the part as pictured in the link above and comparing that to the picture I posted, it looks like the end of the tubing on the part installed on my truck is bent in the opposite direction to the one shown in the picture. It is hard to tell with a picture but I think that what happened is that the factory installed the wrong end on this hose. I think they installed the end that should go on the drivers side. The brackets are right and left handed, so it's not possible to install the hose on the wrong side. I bought both a drivers and passenger side front hose and the drivers side hose is the same in that the steel tubing on the bottom is bent in the wrong direction. Both hoses came in a package along with some other parts at a good price. My guess is that RockAuto knew very well that the hoses were incorrectly manufactured and sold them off with some other parts at a good price to get rid of them. This is not very nice of them if true. It's hard to imagine that the only set of hoses that was made improperly was the set that I got.

If it is your experience that you often have to re-bend the steel tubing that I am describing to get the hose installed on the caliper then maybe I am wrong. It seems odd that the part should be so far off from the necessary shape. If it was meant to be bent at installation, it would be better if it was just straight like pre-fabricated brake tubing sections so that you can bend as you need. The bends that are already there will make it much harder to get it into the correct shape (or close enough).

I do have a small tube bending pliers but I don't know if they will bend steel tubing of this thickness. Some of the tubing may need to be bent 180 degrees from its current shape. I am doubtful that the tubing will bend that far without breaking.

LMHmedchem

 

[410Fortune]

Looking at rock auto I see what you are taking about, the centric part has an odd j shape bed at the end different from the other front right hoses pictured.

I’m wonding if they made a change between 2002 and 03 and you simply need an older part or a slightly different part.
Without that bend it’s going to have a hard time fitting

Let’s look at the same parts for a 02 and then for an 04 and see if we cannot figure out what is going on here

The pictures are generally the actual part shipped
Rockauto can only list parts the manufacture says fits, raybestos is listing the part as front left, then that is how r a will sell it to you. The one big disadvantage ordering parts online has is you have very little chance to compare the old part to the new. For tricky parts like this sometimes a visit to the parts store is in order and simply return the wrong part back to ra?

The really interesting part here is the centric is the only one shown with that bend, none of the other hoses for the “front right” position have that bend??? Something fishy

Let’s check Autozone website compare pics of same part

 

[410Fortune]

Nope Autozone shows the same hoses 2002,2003 and 2004 mountaineer no j bend in any of them
The mystery continues!

In fact after checking g Autozone rockauto and amazon that centric part 15065145 is the only line for the front right of a 02-04 mountaineer or explorer that has that bend in it! Making me believe that the parts are meant to be compatible but not meant to fit like factory… likely bypassing the metal retainer bracket?
Sometimes with brake lines the aftermarket expects you to improvise instead of making an exact fit part they offer up a “one size fits all” part similar to an”cut to fit” cooling hose. Just a guess after playing this game for many years. It might be in your best interest to order the centric part! Heck maybe get two and have a spare

Would the part fit if it was not hooked into the bracket on the knuckle? Meaning if you let it hang loose and used zip ties to retain it could it be made to fit?

 

[Bazz270]

Why not using the OEM one?are they totally discontinued or something?