Author - Pim25

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Extension of the brake tube

Correct flaring of the brake tube

The main lines scheme for 40m model looks like this:

It is no secret that our older cars' braking systems, especially those located near the wheels, tend to corrode and crack due to water exposure and vibration:

So after disassembly one often ends up with only pieces of tubes and flanges, sometimes even with brackets:

The situation with hoses is clearer - they need regular replacement as consumables, fortunately all necessary brake hoses for our car can (for now!) be ordered in our online stores:

However, attempting to order original tubes from our body will likely result in an unpleasant 'discontinued' message – at least that's what happened to me in several online stores. Undeterred, I started gradually finding and collecting similar original tubes from wrecking yards, and apparently achieved some success with this.

Nevertheless, upon closely tackling the restoration of brakes, I still decided to dig further into the web and try to solve the problem of tube replacement more 'kosher' way. And found a solution! Discovered a manufacturer of steel, copper, and copper-nickel brake tubes – Polish company Witold Pniewski, which, as it turned out, supplies these tubes and braking system components to half of Europe. The trick is that their parts catalog numbers match in Exist.ru, where one can order straight tubes of specified length with the necessary flanges and flaring.

Here's an example of their catalog, where blue highlights tube outer diameter 4.75 mm (3/16'') with 'Japanese' double cone SAE flaring. The tubes from the middle column table that I ordered fit almost everywhere:

Short and medium (from 35 to 90 cm) tubes I replaced entirely (ordering WP items or making them myself and flaring the ends), bending them as a sample, transferring the insulating coating:

Another small detail that will come in handy when replacing hoses and tubes – these are spring clips for mounting. They usually corrode heavily during operation, deform upon removal, and there's no desire to reuse them. Purchasing this cheap but necessary item in quantity slightly more than ten pieces (two of which will be needed during the handbrake overhaul) greatly simplifies work and saves from painstaking restoration:

Moreover, on some new hoses you'll have to reposition old open type lock washers – where they haven't been replaced by factory protrusions on flanges.

Looking a bit into the future, for easy removal of brake tubes without damage it's beneficial to lubricate the tube-flange contact area with some long-lasting grease upon installation. I used this special and handy aerosol 'product' for that: