hiya

yippie the hippo is all done and back on the road, fitted the new rear steel brake lines , bled the lines out and all done

also u guys were right after about 50 feet of driving it up the road all the lights went out

inspected all the flares etc and all ok, james with the engine off then put his foot on the brake as hard asmhe could for about a minute whilst i checked the joints, pulled them all as well

managed to get it in one piece from the abs unit to the rear passenger side drum and also one section on the drivers side so only got 4 x homemade joins

so now have, new front discs and pads, new rear brake lines inc hoses, new shoes from last year

so now hand brake cables next so then wont have to think about the brakes for a while

just cant thk u guys enough and was a great feeeling of being back on the rd again

spot lights next i think , not going to take the dashboard out yet awhile as ive just got the car back on the rd and james is going away so we are going to see if we can get the land rover wiring loom in and at least it wont effect it being taken off the rd

cheers guys

gary

Good stuff Gary, pleased to hear you are mobile again. One thing, the steel pipes are obviously more restrictive when you come to tighten the nuts than the copper tube...in other words the nuts will lock up on the steel tube due to the tensile strength whereas the copper, being softer will offer less resistance to the torque exerted on the nut and will crush and weaken due to stretch & thinning and eventually fail. This is where the "Feel factor" kicks in when tightening the joints.
On a different note...what was the outcome regarding the handbrake "jammed on" event that you posted ???
It's nice to know all outcomes, fixes etc. in posts on the forum as it may help other members with similar problems.
Good luck
Irish

btw, ezibleed 15psi test you are looking more at 3000psi for the brakes

Maybe try a few flares on some pipe and stick photos up to check if you were doing them right.

Also, I like to nip, backoff, nip, backoff and nip the unions. This helps shape the soft copper/cupro to form a tight seal. Notice the word nip, not tighten as hard as you can

thks guys, like the idea of us doing some flares and posting some pics up as that would also give james and i abit more confidence that we've done then correctly

regarding the handbrake, once James had put the wheels back on and be totally honest i started her up, put the hand brake down and just reversed up a bit and it just freed it self up then took it for a test drive, the lights went out and when i reversed back onto the drive then thought oh, erm the handbrake was jammed on, lolol

i reversed onto the driveway on tickover and there was no feeling of restriction on the drums holding in any way

but will order a pair of handbrake cables as it will complete the job,

i know some people think its a bit of an overkill but put alot of hours in and dont wish to scrimp on anything , plus it would only fail the mot which isnt due till march so would rather do it now so its finished with

regarding the flares when James took the other side copper pipe off that went to the drum that was being replaced with the steel one, i put it flush on the ground held a flat bladed screwdriver onto the back of the flare to see how strong the flare was and had to really push hard before the flare broke off.

james tried it again with his foot on the brake and with the engine running for around a minute and checked again, checked round all the joints and all was dry

will check again and both of us are just a bit worried about the other flares and have been thinking of cutting them off and redoing them and then just nipping them up as there is only four of them . two at the abs unit and two where they go into the flex hoses

just felt a huge achievement getting it all done and it cost around 200 quid for the lot

but the best thing is no more bloody squeaking

totally agree if this helps anyone else who are doing there brakes always nice to have a referral etc to look back onto

thks guys

gary

You can work harden copper pipe if you use the wrong technique to do the flares. If you over compress the flare it can crack off. Use light oil on the pipe and tool and practice lots. At least you are sorted now.