Post by riffraff on Apr 24, 2007 12:28:24 GMT -5
This will fall under the Advice category methinks.
As most of you know, I have been plugging away on the Mango, trying to get it to take a gulp of air for the first time in 35 years. I had been debating whether or not to change out the hard brake lines on it. There is little corrosion on this bus considering it spent some time in Chicago, the frame and crossmembers are all solid. There was no evidence of corrosion on the brake lines and all the connections unscrewed easily.
I had the transaxle out to replace it with a big nut, and it is much easier to get at the T and the rear brake connections with the transaxle out, so I finally decided that there was really no downside to changing out all the hard brake lines, being as how every other component of the brakes will be new.
The long line that runs from the master cylinder to the rear T has enough bends in it that I decided I would not even try to pull it out in one piece, but I would cut it into short lengths in sitsu And pull it out in pieces.
The first piece I pulled out was the frontmost - master cylinder back over the front beam. The next piece I went to pull out was where the hard line goes through the frontmost crossmember. That is where it has the rubber centering plugs to keep it from chafing against the crossmember. When I went to pull it through the crossmember, the part of it on the front side of the crossmember pulled through, but the backside stayed put!
The line was rusted through!
It turns out that the reason this happened was because the crossmember was full to the top with dust and pebbles and general road grunge! There are small openings in the crossmember where other cables and sheaths go through and after many miles on gravel roads, the crossmember filled up to the top with dust. The dust would get wet when it rained and hold the moisture against the brake line, causing it to corrode to the point of catastrophic failure.
I then had to spend another hour or so with my Shopvac and makeshift excavating tools to dig most of the dust and pebbles out of the crossmember so that the new brake line does not suffer the same fate as the old one.
Finding this brake line is a good enough reason for me to
a) replace all brake lines on all buses
b) run a dual circuit M/C on all my buses
Your experiences and recommendations will undoubtably vary, but file this in the "For what it's Worth" section anyhow.
As most of you know, I have been plugging away on the Mango, trying to get it to take a gulp of air for the first time in 35 years. I had been debating whether or not to change out the hard brake lines on it. There is little corrosion on this bus considering it spent some time in Chicago, the frame and crossmembers are all solid. There was no evidence of corrosion on the brake lines and all the connections unscrewed easily.
I had the transaxle out to replace it with a big nut, and it is much easier to get at the T and the rear brake connections with the transaxle out, so I finally decided that there was really no downside to changing out all the hard brake lines, being as how every other component of the brakes will be new.
The long line that runs from the master cylinder to the rear T has enough bends in it that I decided I would not even try to pull it out in one piece, but I would cut it into short lengths in sitsu And pull it out in pieces.
The first piece I pulled out was the frontmost - master cylinder back over the front beam. The next piece I went to pull out was where the hard line goes through the frontmost crossmember. That is where it has the rubber centering plugs to keep it from chafing against the crossmember. When I went to pull it through the crossmember, the part of it on the front side of the crossmember pulled through, but the backside stayed put!
The line was rusted through!
It turns out that the reason this happened was because the crossmember was full to the top with dust and pebbles and general road grunge! There are small openings in the crossmember where other cables and sheaths go through and after many miles on gravel roads, the crossmember filled up to the top with dust. The dust would get wet when it rained and hold the moisture against the brake line, causing it to corrode to the point of catastrophic failure.
I then had to spend another hour or so with my Shopvac and makeshift excavating tools to dig most of the dust and pebbles out of the crossmember so that the new brake line does not suffer the same fate as the old one.
Finding this brake line is a good enough reason for me to
a) replace all brake lines on all buses
b) run a dual circuit M/C on all my buses
Your experiences and recommendations will undoubtably vary, but file this in the "For what it's Worth" section anyhow.
