Guys, This AM pulling up to the 1st light on my 30 minute journey to work, I hit my brake pedal and it went to the floor. luckily I was pulling my trailer (The whole reason I was in the truck to begin with) so grabbed the brake controller and got stopped before I ran into the cross traffic. I limped on it to work and looked underneath, and found the hard line on the top side of the rear axle is either loose or cracked right where that mounting bracket is.

The problem lies in the fact that I work in a position that keeps me from crawling under my truck in the parking lot and getting good and dirty. Does anyone have a picture of this line and where it goes? Best I could tell it runs to the passenger side brakes, but was uncertain. I would like to get the line while I am in town today, fix it after work in the parking lot, and finish my work this evening moving a tractor.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Nobody sells the lines prebent, you'll have to buy a piece of line and do 'er up. If you're careful you won't need a bender. Get a piece that looks to be too long and put a "Z" bend in it somewhere to lose the excess. Then onece you get where you're going, get the flaring and bending tools and make up a new one using the old line as a pattern.

 

But, I have, on occasion, took a pair of Vise-Grips, or a hammer, and mashed shut an offending brake-line, thereby losing the brakes on one wheel, but gaining the use of the other three.

They even make a tool for crushing brake-lines leak-free; my uncle has one.

Done right, mashing a brake line will yield nary a drip, even under hard braking.

If the line has to be replaced, anyway, this is much less intrusive, in the Walmart parking lot, than a full-blown line replacement.

Some places will even have you ticketed and force you to be towed, when you start tearing into a vehicle on their lot.

Maybe this will help the next victim.

 

Wanna & Bk - thanks for the replies. My employer is strict about making sure their parking lots are neat in appearance during business hours as we are a walk-in type retail business. Not to mention I had to park close to the front of our lot because of the brake issue.

Anyhow, after reading ya'lls post and crawling under it after work I saw the problem. It was the hard line cracked right where it went into the "junction" on top of the axle. I went and got a 40" piece of hard brake line (Which I was unaware they sold in this fassion), bent her up by hand and good as new. Had to bribe a buddy for help to get the air bled off and I was on my way.

Only issue now is my wife is mad that I got my new pants pretty dirty. Never have been able to stay clean while working on anything!

Thanks again! I appreciate the responses.

 

Hence, the disposable coveralls that have resided under my passenger seat for several years.

Yes, you read that right, disposable coveralls; I commandeered them when I worked at **** Southern.