How To: Stainless Steel Brake Lines

[melicha8]

I haven't gotten permission or a reply so I just figured I would post it here

1) Here are the simple tools required
Jacks and Stands
(1)Vinyl Tubing
(1)Lg. Bottle Brake Fluid your choice although some aren’t recommended for conventional brakes
(3)Wrenches 10mm, 12mm, 14mm
(1)Small adjustable wrench
(1)Mallet
(1)Flat Head Screwdriver
Other tools may be useful but these are the bare necessities.

2) The first things to do are jack up the car and remove the wheels. Not being able to raise the car on all four sides will complicate things a little and require more time in the whole installation process. I will give you an account of how I did it by jacking up one side at a time.
3) I first jacked up the front. Afterwards I went into the engine bay and took the top off the brake fluid reservoir. I then went down to the brake caliper and put the vinyl tubing over the bleed valve and turned it clockwise to empty the reservoir and hardline going to that caliper. Removing the cap on the reservoir will assist and make this go faster. Make sure to catch the brake fluid in the right container. Certain containers will react with the fluid. Glass, an empty brake fluid bottle, or a bottle with recycling code #3 will do the best. These I am sure on.

4) Next thing to do is remove the stock line. Start with the 12mm bolt on the caliper. There will be residual fluid in the line so have the bottle on hand to catch what you can. After that remove the 10mm bolt on the hardline attached to the wheel well. After both bolts are off the stock line you may now remove the clips as shown in the picture. Large pliers will help here. By keeping the clips in it will make the removal easier because it keeps the stock line from rotating with the bolt.


5) Now that the stock line is removed you may take the SSB line and begin to install it. The short lines go in the front and the long lines go in the back, remember this to save some time and aggravation. Start with the top clip next to the hardline. Install it to keep the SSB line in place. Now align the hardline and the bolt and wrench it into the hardline until there is no lateral play in the line. Any play whatsoever will result in leaks, which is exactly what happened to me because I got a poorly fitting kit.

6) The banjo bolt to the caliper is different. Take the bolt and put on a crush washer. Put that bolt and washer through the banjo and another crush washer over the banjo. So the order is: bolt-washer-banjo-washer- caliper. Sorry for the blurry image but it is hard to get the right focus. To clarify the following is a picture of the banjo and bolt complex. It shows the bolt upside down because when it is flipped behind the caliper to its female end it comes out on the right side. If you do it you will know what I mean. Using a 14mm torque wrench tighten down the bolt to 22-29N-m(2.2-3.0kgf-m; 16-21ft-lb) in the front and rear lines. The last part to do is to install the last clip. Simply position the grommet in such a way that the longer side is not tight and the short side has enough line to bend the way it needs to. Now just twist the grommet until it is in the brace all the way and hammer in the clip using the mallet.


7) Repeat steps 3-6 three more times and all four lines should look like this:

8) Now it is time to bleed the system. First make sure all bleed valves are closed and then fill the reservoir with your choice of fluid. I used Valvoline Synthetic DOT 3 & 4(that is the name) because of its high hydration temperature, which has a little lower hydration temp than DOT 5.
9) Open up the bleed valve and put on the vinyl hose, which feeds into your container. Be sure to put the cap back on the reservoir otherwise it will take longer for the system to bleed. Now it is time to pump the brake pedal. I found one long press and holding it for a couple seconds was way more fruitful than pumping it fast. Do this until there are no air bubbles coming out. It is helpful to let the line sit for a while and let the bubbles settle into larger bubbles because they come out more readily.
WARNING: Do not let the reservoir get too low otherwise air may be reintroduced into the line and you’ll have to start over.
Just be sure to keep and eye on it every once in a while.
10) Once all air is out of the line simply close the valve and repeat steps 8-10 three more times.
11) Put wheels back on and lower the car.
Total time approximately 4hrs. with minimal equipment 3 hrs with a lift or four stands

Andrew Melicharek

[KzA]

So here are the two most important questions....
#1 How much did the total kit cost you?
#2 Is it worth it? How is the difference?

[MP3-Owner]

Nice "How To:" Good work

[KzA]

bumppp

[melicha8]

Sorry missed the post. I put the old ones in because there was a problem with the line threading being to deep and the sealing of the line depends on the threading being at the right depth so I had to return them. I called goodridge yesterday and they said they would be sending me a new kit by the end of next week.
Worth it? Not if we all have to go through what I did. Cost? 106 shipped plus one month of agravation. I recommend for now that anyone that buys a kit buy the Corksport kit. Same cost and they probably have some good PR as opposed to the Chimpanzees running the phones and the machine shop over at goodridge.

www.corksport.com

[xelderx]

I've had the Goodridge kit sitting in the top of my toolbox since the first month that I had my Pro5. I actually got the first set that Goodridge made for the Pro5. They had to call my local Mazda dealer and get the specs for the lines and fittings. Then they made me a custom set for me back in 2001. I just hadn't had a chance to install them until this week. I think your fitment problem was an isolated event since I've worked with Goodridge almost exclusively for motorcycle brakelines for over 5 years without any problems. I hate that you got a bad set of lines, but some things I guess are inevitable. Stainless steel braided lines are a must for anyone wanting to do a brake upgrade. Its one of the things that most people overlook. The how to was very good. Sounds like your car is coming along nicely. Keep up thew good work. Later.

[freekwonder]

thanks for the instructions man. they helped me out tonight. on a sied note. if you are going to do this on your own. invest in a "GOOD" one man bleeder kit. i had to bleed mine three times cause the first kit sucked. and just for the hell of it I threw in a couple of my pics. Click the pictures for higher res images. (about 1.1 mg in size)

[irish6714]

Can anyone tell me what size fittings are use on the lines, and how long the lines are? I will make mine myself if the info is forth comming. I don't want to have my car down all day while I make break lines.

[Natey]

Yay! I've got something to install!

[PaulMP3]

me too!!!

[Natey]

GRRRR.

3 out of four with no problems(although the clips are kind of a bitch to get back in) and I stripped the head of the 4th hardline bolt. Now I'm soaking it in WD40 and I plan on drelleming the head back to octagon. I hope this works..I don't wanna have three SS brake lines.

EDIT: I love Vise-Grips. My SS lines are in and working great so far. Thanks melicha8 for a easy-to-follow How To.

[grindMARC]

3 out of four with no problems(although the clips are kind of a bitch to get back in) and I stripped the head of the 4th hardline bolt.

The guys over at NASIOC say that a flare nut wrench is mandatory for just this reason. You can slip it over the hard brakeline and still grab on all sides of the nut rather than the two sides you get using a box wrench.

Here's a pic of the 10 mm flare nut wrench.


This thing was critical for my install. The driver side rear was REALLY on there good. If I had a box wrench, I'm sure I would have rounded some corners over. Sears has these guys for about $12 for the single wrench or $23 for a set of 8 sizes.

My only other tips are:

1. Use brake cleaner after you put on the new line. Be sure to clean off the connection at the caliper as well as the top. It will be much easier to check for leaks if you have all the brake fluid cleaned off. Put a drain pan under to collect the cleaner. This stuff will literally put holes in an asphalt driveway.

2. The clip mounts on my Corksport lines didn't line up perfectly to the OEM lines. They're not stationary, so move them so that nearly all of the slack is between the clip and the top connection.

3. Do not remove the clips before breaking loose the top connections. They will keep things in place nicely.

4. Definitely put the bottom connection on first so that you don't have brake fluid dribbling through when you connect the bottom.

5. Good luck with those clips! Getting them off is easy enough, but putting them back on! Good lord! The prongs on the clips are very brittle, so don't try to bend them. I busted one off. The backs were fine, it was the front ones that were tuff on my car.

6. If you're flushing the fluid when you do this job, be careful not to pull air through the system. Top off the fluid after bleeding EVERY corner. On my car, some corners pulled alot more fluid than others. I also put on speedbleeders at the same time. Man, they made the job easy.

[viVid]

Thanks for the tips... I will definitely have to get me a set of those wrenches. BTW, I found the speed bleeders at www.speedbleeder.com. They don't list a specific application for the Protege5... did you use SB8100 for the fronts and SB7100 for the rear (90-96 Protege)?

[grindMARC]

Originally Posted by viVid

Thanks for the tips... I will definitely have to get me a set of those wrenches. BTW, I found the speed bleeders at www.speedbleeder.com. They don't list a specific application for the Protege5... did you use SB8100 for the fronts and SB7100 for the rear (90-96 Protege)?

No, our P5 used the same speedbleeder all the way around. I ordered them for two cars and ended up using 2 from the WRX installation. I think its the 7100 that fits all the way around. I'll double check that later today.

Edit: Our 02 P5 took SB7100 speedbleeders on all four corners. These are the gray threaded variety.

[Togan]

seems easy.. how long does it take for the whole process?