Brake line leak

[Mark]

I have a persistent leak at one of the hard line to bulk head adapter fittings in the rear. It's where the inverted flare of the hard line mates with the adapter to go to AN-3. I've got this thing cranked down as far as I dare and it still leaks a few drops a day just sitting there. Anybody have tips on how to resolve this?

thank you!

 

[Alex]

loosen it up, snug it down, loosen it up, then tighten the piss out of it. Sometimes it just needs to be re-seated because of the stainless material. If it still leaks after that then just replace the line, maybe the flare is damaged. Also make sure the bulkhead fitting is for IF and not NPT

 

[Luke S]

I'm sure you have, but have you completely disconnected and looked for scratches or burs?

Really dumb question, did you possibly flare the SS at wrong angle? There are two accepted flarings for brake lines.

 

[Fran Hall RCR]

All of our brake lines are manufactured in SS for us by Inline tube , they are all pre-bent and flared.

SS does sometimes need seating though as Alex described.

 

[Mark]

Luke, I inspect all fittings for that sort of thing before I assemble but good suggestion. I'll try Alex's fix and report back. I just recalled that rear bracket was putting a bit of preload on the line to get it in the desired position. I'm going to try unbolting the bracket and tightening the fitting first and then bolt it in place maybe that will allow the two sealing surfaces to be square.

 

[Howard Jones]

You might even use a heat gun or your wife's hair drier and get the fitting and tubing nice and hot when you do the Alex fix. Sometimes we forget how cold things get when we are working out in the garage in the evening.

Various materials respond differently to temp. Sometimes the working temp is pretty important. Just something to keep in mind. Sometimes a nice pot of hot water makes things fit real nice.

 

[Cliff Beer]

This wouldn't be my first recommendation, but I recall many years ago (before I knew better) soldering a flared brake line joint on an old MG I had because I had tried everything (re-seating, squaring it up, etc) and nothing seemed to work. I probably had the wrong angle flare or something like that. I didn't want to have to pull out the whole brake line (it went behind a bunch of stuff and through a bulkhead or two....big pain...to make a new one. Soldering worked great....get it hot, douse in flux, and put the heat in the area of where the flare meets the fitting and solder will run in there (and hopefully not in the line...). Just a thought.

 

[Mark]

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, been monitoring it for a few days and it's dry. I unbolted the frame bracket which took the tension off and allowed the mating surfaces to square up, heated the joint a bit and then tightened the fitting. I bolted the bracket to the frame the next day.

Didn't get a chance to try the soldering method unfortunately but I must say it's kinda brilliant in it's own bizarre way.