Merry Christmas all! Hoping someone can help me with my frustrations in flaring brake lines. I blew one of the 25-year-old hard lines going into the tee at the rear. This prompted my winter project of complete sub-frame re-hab. I'd love to get my new Garagistic sub-frame bolted up this week but am having a HELL of a time making a couple of flares. The one that broke is the long one from the front. My plan is to put a bubble union at the rear, about 24" from the tee. that leaves two other lines off the tee, one of which is a little over 11"- so I was able to buy a steel pre-formed 4.75 mm bubble at 12" and bend it up. The two lines under the rear control arms are 30", so good to go there too with a pre-made line. So essentially, I need to make a total of FIVE (5) flares. No big deal right?
So far, I have used the standard "bar/clamp" type tool. A crappy one from HF that I broke and returned and a really good SK from a mechanic friend. I also bought a ATD Tools (same as CalVan) inline tool with proper adapters.
I was able to make decent inverted DOUBLE flares using the proper dies, but can't for the life of me, turn out a good BUBBLE flare. I looked at all the on-line videos (cut square, chamfer edges, de-burr inside, lubricate, and PRACTICE). I gave up trying on steel tubing and bought a 25 ft roll of 3/16" CuNi- much softer and easier to work with. Below are some pictures comparing a factory-made BUBBLE flare to a) flare made with 4.75mm BUBBLE die and b) flare made with 3/16" standard die (without the 2nd step to do a DOUBLE FLARE).
You can see that there is like a "double lip" on the BUBBLE flare- it appears that this will not seal properly. The one that I did using the STANDARD 3/16" flare die produced a nice smooth flare- but when looking at the angle, it appears that this one would not seal properly either.
The last thing I want to do is install these lines, bolt up the sub-frame and have them leak. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Swen
So far, I have used the standard "bar/clamp" type tool. A crappy one from HF that I broke and returned and a really good SK from a mechanic friend. I also bought a ATD Tools (same as CalVan) inline tool with proper adapters.
I was able to make decent inverted DOUBLE flares using the proper dies, but can't for the life of me, turn out a good BUBBLE flare. I looked at all the on-line videos (cut square, chamfer edges, de-burr inside, lubricate, and PRACTICE). I gave up trying on steel tubing and bought a 25 ft roll of 3/16" CuNi- much softer and easier to work with. Below are some pictures comparing a factory-made BUBBLE flare to a) flare made with 4.75mm BUBBLE die and b) flare made with 3/16" standard die (without the 2nd step to do a DOUBLE FLARE).
You can see that there is like a "double lip" on the BUBBLE flare- it appears that this will not seal properly. The one that I did using the STANDARD 3/16" flare die produced a nice smooth flare- but when looking at the angle, it appears that this one would not seal properly either.
The last thing I want to do is install these lines, bolt up the sub-frame and have them leak. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks
Swen
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