Broken brakes, need a bit of help

[davebem]

Fitted the better goodrich lines this morning and bled my brakes. Got to the last one and the thread on the union is buggered. Ive tried everything to get it to screw into the new brake line but it wont go in. It wont go back into the old line either. I take it the brake pipes on the car are 3/16. Does anyone know where I can get a new union and what size I need as I think im gonne have to chop the pipe, stick a new union on and flare it (hopefully can do this while its all still attached).

Any help or suggestions will be appreciated.

 

[Henry]

some of the handier High St parts suppliers keep unions and make up pipes; sounds as though the car's off the road until you can fix it anyway, so you could take the tip of the pipe off, remove the union, and take it with you to whoever you can find who stocks them. might still be lucky at this time on a Sunday

 

[ditz]

pipes are quite long they join in the middle of the car

pipe is 3/16.. you can get the unions from motor factors but i found a bag of 25 metric ones on ebay for like 2 pound so i bought a few bags of metric and unf

can be done on the car too if you get a flaring tool that suibtable.. its worth paying for a good one too i origionally bought a draper one which was ok but it had plastic dies which were pants and out of the countless times i used it i only ever managed to make 1 flare look nice


bought an on car one from snap on for about 50 quid and it does perfect flares every time

and make sure you havn't buggered the thread in the new pipe either.. dont want to cross thread the new one in

 

[bmh.01]

Round towers spares in nuneaton may do them and they're open on sundays.

024 7632 9821

 

[davebem]

Cheers guys, im just off to round towers spares, heard of them before. Ditz did you find out if the clio ones are metric or unf?

 

[ditz]

metric mate 10x1mm i think..

industry standard metric anyway

 

[Henry]

it's not just the thread you need to worry about - you need to be sure it has the same length/bevel to the tip (beyond the threads), too.

good luck in sorting it today - always annoying when something breaks on a Sunday!

 

[ditz]

you cant really do it wrong mate thats a standard single flare... double flares are used for unf fittings and female unions

as for length of the union it dosn't matter as it will still bottom against the flare/inner wall of the flexy pipe

 

[Henry]

i think it depends upon the application; i've had problems before with the tip/bevel (beyond the threads) being too long, not seating properly and not engaging much of the thread (not ideal with brakes) - apart from in the thread and thread length, unions do vary at the tip beyond the thread. that's a short one but it's an easy mistake to come home with something slightly different rolleyes: at me)!

 

[Henry]

made a proper hash of explaining what i meant with this and thought i'd best correct myself -

it would have been simpler to point out that there are both long-nosed and short-nosed unions and that, if you use a long-nosed one when you need a short-nosed, you can find that the flare butts up before the threads engage properly/at all (depends upon application).

also, talking rubbish about the bevel on the union - was thinking of the flare (jesus!).

anyway, apols for the confusion.

did you get it sorted or is it a Monday job?

 

[davebem]

Thanks for your help. I had trouble finding the correct union length and size from anywhere. Got home and had another go. The end of the union had flared slight from being overtightened over the pipe flare. Luckily managed to knock something up to squash it back in and all eventually scewed back in nice and tight. Went for a good drive and no leaks so I was lucky really.