Front brake hose's

Hi lads, long time no post.

Just in the process of putting new discs and pads up front of my 1994 300tdi defender, but Ive hit a snag. The solid hose at the caliper end of the N/S was seized solid and no amount of lube or subsequent 'last resort' heat would free them - without rotating the pipe as well. So that one's now snapped, but the other is yet to be tackled.

I fitted Goodridges hoses a few years back but have noticed they appear to be the same size thread etc as the solid hose connection at the back of the caliper? I havent tried it yet as the captive nut holding it in place is also seized solid .

So can / does the flexi hose connect directly into the back of the caliper without needing to replace the, quite frankly, stupidly design short section of solid hose?

Regards

Tom

no you make upnew pipes from caliper to bracket

tjwaines said:

...quite frankly, stupidly design short section of solid hose?

Click to expand...

They do it this way because if you had a flexi right up to the caliper, when you undid the flexi which would be solid onto the union, the whole flexi would twist as you undid it, so you would need to undo the other end too, so any time you want to remove a caliper you need to disturb the whole flexi pipe.

This way the flexi has a male on it and the female union on the solid pipe can spin off independently of the pipe moving - trick to keeping the unions from sticking is to put a smear of RED RUBBER GREASE round the pipe and union before tightening. DO NOT be tempted to use a mineral grease; if it gets into the system and contaminates the seals they will swell up and fail.

Cheers for the advice guys, gonna make up the new pipes tomorrow. Quite a few of the other cars I've worked on in the past (mostly Fords) the flexi pipe has had a rotating connection on the caliper end, thus allowing its easy removal.

Just out of interest does anyone know the part number of the caliper mounting bolts? One on either side has been removed by the 'smack a smaller socket on method'

Cheers

Tom

Found the buggers with a search.

cheers

Why don't you stick a male/male nipple in the caliper and have a swivel female fitted to the end of the hose so it will spin on without turning the hose?

I have the same defender as you. This year I completely upgraded the brakes. Put vented disc on the front and slotted on the rear, and goodridge hoses. Obviously had to replace the front calipers (due to the wider discs), but did salvage the rear calipers. Had all the same troubles as you. A number of the caliper bolts were rounded to the point of needing a socket hammered on. I decided there and then to just replace all the caliper bolts, and disc guards and the little brackets that hold the bottoms of the front ones (which were rusted to non existence).

For the brake pipes, I found it far easier to buy a flairing tool, fittings and tube and make up the tubes I needed. The old tubes were stuck tight such that I had to cut them off and use a deep reach socket to remove the old fittings.

Those ridgid tubes on the front caliper are 11 inches long if I remember correctly.

I had similar problem with mine.
I was driving along and lost brakes completely -foot down to the floor - Nothing! pumped it - nothing. Lucky I wasnt going fast and was just returning home!
Turned out the caliper was only attached with one bolt to the swivel housing.
with the constant movement it had damaged the joint between the flexi hose and the solid pipe and stated to leak and must have some air in the system - The knocking noise when braking explained!
long story short - no transport and ordered online

brake hose
NRC7874

brake pipe
NRC7799

caliper mounting bolt
AFU1031

still waiting but I got some dot4 fluid.
Seems like everything that the previous owner did was a bodge

I have just changed the flexi's on my 96 110 CSW for goodridge ones. Front ones came apart really easy but the back one was a pain. The captive bolt on the old flex was stuck solid so had to cut it out and then the "T" piece on the rear axle got damaged unscrewing the other end of the the flexi because it had seized up as well. All back on now with no leaks.