Advice sought on replacing center rear brake hose 1985 Town Car

[mre12ax7]

Hello,
I recently had the back brakes go out on my 1985 Town Car.
The hose going to the rear axle has failed. I want to replace it and the 2 hardlines going to the wheel cylinders.
Whats the easiest way to go about doing this with a jack and jackstands?
Thanks.

[dan]

Yes, on my 90 that center hose had a seized torx bolt. Spray the living shit out of it with pb blaster and hope you don’t have to grind the head off like I did.


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[Tiggie]

Without a flaring tool, you’re best to estimate the length of the hard line and go buy some in a a close length. I think they usually sell it in 10” increments or so. Comes with the fittings installed. Bend it to make it close to the right shape as possible.

It’s also a good time to buy a flaring tool, a tube bender, some line, and some fittings and replace them all if they look suspect. The line from the rear hose to the front of the car is almost always crusty if the car has seen any salt.

[jaywish]

If you do the lines yourself buy the nickle line. Longer life and easier to bend. Make sure the flares look perfect or do them again. Also make sure you put the new fittings on the line before you flare it.

Being proactive any lines which look rusted will save you time and trouble.

You can splice with a female/female adapter and two regular fittings. pressure fitting are not legal. A splice is generally only worth it if the line you are splicing into is in excellent condition all the way to the master.

[jaywish]

Very important to break free all four bleeder screws before starting the rest of the work. This way you can buy replacement calipers or wheel cylinders or remove the broken screws before it is time to bleed the brakes. Freeing bleeder screws is part art part luck.

[mre12ax7]

Going to try and take care of this today. I did try to loosen the rear bleeders. They both came loose with no issues.
The front calipers were replaced by the previous owner 2 years ago so I am not concerned with the bleeders being rusted on like the back ones.

[86VickyLX]

Very important to break free all four bleeder screws before starting the rest of the work. This way you can buy replacement calipers or wheel cylinders or remove the broken screws before it is time to bleed the brakes. Freeing bleeder screws is part art part luck.

Air chisel with hammer attachment with slight force on the bleeder normally breaks them free 85% of the time. Add a little heat to the mix an you're 95% gonna get those things to come loose!

[jaywish]

You are saying hammer the cylinder/caliper body with a light wrench on the bleeder?

[massacre]

I remember using a tool to remove bleeders, kinda like this one

https://surrauto.com/kits/bb007/

Worked pretty good

[packman]

I rebuilt my rear several years ago; I will post the link to my thread, which should have the parts and the part numbers I used. I had the rear out of the car when I did this though. My rear had a broken T-fitting bolt, so I had my Dad's friend weld a bolt to the nub and extract it. I will be revisiting this in the near future as the 3AN line I used in place of the rubber line is corroding; and the rear lines need replacing.

http://www.grandmarq.net/vb/showthread.php?19323-My-Ma-s-1986-Crown-Victoria-LX/page5

[gadget73]

Best fix for stuck bleeders is a new wheel cylinder. If the bleeder is stuck the cylinder probably isn't worth a damn anyway. The most expensive wheel cylinder on Rockauto is less than $7. Most of them are under $4. For that price, its not worth the effort to screw with rusty bleeders.

[87gtVIC]

You get into the "can I remove the brake line" game next.....

After that is all new brake lines and wheel cylinders.

[slack]

If you do the lines yourself buy the nickle line. Longer life and easier to bend.

I second this x1000. Nickle Copper lines are the best. The bend stupid easy without kinking and flare really easy as well. I had to do a bunch of lines on my cars last year and went with this stuff to save the hassle. It's nice to be able to just bend it easy and flare once and be done instead of getting bad flares on the steel lines and having to keep cutting back until you're running low on slack. (I'm crap at flaring so YMMV )

[gadget73]

also have given up on steel lines. The nicopp lines are the way to go.

part of making decent flares is a good tool. Shitty ones don't hold the line properly and it ends up slipping through the block enough to cause problems.

[massacre]

Best fix for stuck bleeders is a new wheel cylinder. If the bleeder is stuck the cylinder probably isn't worth a damn anyway. The most expensive wheel cylinder on Rockauto is less than $7. Most of them are under $4. For that price, its not worth the effort to screw with rusty bleeders.

I agree
Cheap enough to not even bother with

Which made me wonder-
Do a lot of ppl do disc brake conversions on these cars like they do on the fox mustangs?