Braided Steel Brake LIne Fabrication

Years ago, I made my own braided steel brake lines; had a magazine
article that showed how to do it. Now, I have a bike with custom
braided steel brake lines, and I need to lengthen one. I have the

Going with ape hangers on the Street Glide? ;-)

Very close guess! No, the custom Ducati that I bought off eBay a
couple of months ago had originally had flat track style handlebars,
and the previous owner had the builder convert it to flat, eurostyle
bars (think R90S BMW, or Honda CB400F, for example) and, being
thorough, he apparently (as far as I can tell) shortened the brake line
from the bar-mounted master cylinder to the lower tripple clamp-mounted
distributor block to match, so there wouldn't be extraneous brake line
curling around the bars and headlamp area. I'm converting the bars
BACK to flat track style, and need a longer line.

Follow-up: My race shop guys looked at my brake line and told me that
I was wrong, that the fittings WERE crimped on, and could not be
removed without destroying them. So, I need to find new fittings. In
the meantime, they had (in stock!!!!) a length of Goodridge braided
stainless steel line with the exact same fittings, except chromed
instead of anodized blue, with plastic coating on the lines, in various
lengths. For $25, I got a perfectly usable intermediate solution while
I search for matching fittings!

So, I'm happy, and hoping that Turby can help me out with a source for
the lovely blue anodized AN fittings on the custom lines.

Let me know what you want by part number. The outfit i work for is a
distributor of Aeroquip, Earls, and lots of aircraft hardware. I made some
of the dies we use for making pressure hoses.

length of longer hose that I need, but do not know how to disassemble
the (anodized, AN) fittings on the existing hose nor how to reassemble
them on the longer hose.

Anyone have a pointer to a website with instructions with photos or
some other alternative?

That depends on who you're voting for tomorrow.

Henry, of course.

Henry the Horse or Henry Hansteen?

Call Paul U tomorrow at San Jose Harley-Davidson (408) 998-1464. Tell him
Paul from LA sent you.

That's about six miles from here!

Thumper

I'd be very leery of re-using the fittings. I would either:

1) buy new fittings to fit the hose you've got
2) buy some modular hose and fittings that screw together (really)
3) buy a custom made-to-length hose

Dennis Kirk sells the parts for option #2, and Goodridge and Russell are
two companies who make tons of SS brake lines. Dunno where you get the
raw fittings for option #1, and unless you've got the right crimper and
know how to use it you're probably better off not doing your own crimps.

I know where to get the fittings, I know not to re-use crimped
fittings, and I know where to get the raw hoses (I have them already

Don't keep all that info to yourself. I need that stuff from time to time.
Where is it?

I get mine from Earls Performance Plumbing:

I have a Japanese tractor with a front end loader, and recently one of the
hydraulic lines blew out. I had to hit three parts stores before I found one
who had the correct Japanese hydraulic fitting to have a new hose made up. Now
I have 20' of spare hose and six fittings, waiting on the next hose to blow out.

It has occurred to me that having a stock of the ss stuff wouldn't be such a bad
idea, either. Where can I find it?

Most small tractors are japanese or chinese. Yanmar makes a large
percentage of supposed US tractors, including John Deere.

Same as the "buy 'merkin" motorcycle with the Japanese forks, wheels, ignition,
etc.

Yanmar Tractors: Open up the hood of a John Deere tractor and you will see a
Yanmar diesel engine. Yanmar among other things is also noted for their marine
diesels. John Deere compact tractors are assembled in Georgia using Yanmar
engines in all models, either JD or Yanmar transmissions, depending on the
model.

Mitsubishi Tractors: Formerly built tractors for Case and now for Cub Cadet.

Shibaura Tractors: Manufacturer for Ford-New Holland tractors.

Iseki Tractors: Currently build tractors for Massey-Ferguson.
Formerly for Bolens.

Who builds a compact tractor in the US with all US parts? Nobody.

Then I don't get your complaint about having a Japanese tractor and
having obscure parts. They can't be obscure, because everyone uses

Why doesn't that surprise me? Look up Grey Market Tractor on your favorite
search engine. It will become clear to you then.

I said I had to hit three parts stores to find the right hydraulic fitting.
That's hardly a complaint, it's a remark. The parts numbers had eroded from my
fittings. Once I got the relevant numbers, I went online and bought a supply of
fittings and hose at less than half the price I paid at the local supplier.

And parts for some of these tractors can indeed be obscure. Even though they
are made by the same company, they are not always interchangeable. Ever tried
spooning a 460 into a Pinto?

They are not supported by the dealer that made them because they were never
intended to be shipped to the US. The dealers are mad because people are
getting quality tractors at good prices and not paying full retail for their
wares. They see the withholding of support as a way to force people to buy
legitimately imported tractors. I have a real problem with being forced to do
anything.

those parts.

At least they say they do.

anyway). The fittings I have are not, as far as I can see, swaged or
crimped to the hoses. Of course if they are, I won't re-use them!

I was hoping someone would know where there was an article on
assembling and/or disassembling these.

I'm at home and my catalogs are at work.... I'm pretty sure all the
fitting makers, (ie Swagelok, etc,) include instructions in their
catalogs.

Any info you could provide would be MUCH appreciated. I can also
supply close-up photos of what I have, for help in identification.

I sent you an email, but it bounced. I leave for work soon, but you
can get me at "turbosurfer" with the old hotmail and a com suffix.

I sent you e-mail with my correct addy.

AARGH. Make that "keensurf" at the same ips. I can't keep track of who
I am nowadays.

I'll just take them down to my old race sponsor's shop at lunch today
and see if he can help me out.

Thanks for the feedback!

Uh, I don't think that is really good DIY project. I see many expensive
specialty tools.

Thus spoke the Amazing Carnac.

Braided Steel Brake LIne Fabrication - How-to