Braded steel brake lines

[Moparmat2000]

Stainless has a cool factor and having an outer cover will increase the life. For my money, I use factory Delco hoses, but attach them to NiCop lines. I just inspect their condition while doing service. If they last 20 years, then I'll just replace them again.
Never seen a metal line rusts out from the inside in 30+ year of salty roads. Seems strange to absorb that much moisture inside with a good atmosphere seal under the masters cap. I will admit that I haven't seen everything...not even one cat video.

The fluid gets moisture in it because the master cylinder is vented to atmospheric. It has to be otherwise if it was not vented, then as the brake pads wear, the pistons move out, and the fluid tries to go down inside the master cylinder it would otherwise create a vacuum.

Heres 2 pix of the master cylinder lid and seal on a 1994 C1500. This is the OEM part. Circled on the first pic is a small semicircle punched hole in the master cylinder rubber gasket, the circled pic of the lid shows a channel by which atmospheric pressure is allowed to vent into the system. It is done this way to keep dirt out, but let air to vent into the reservoir none the less. So its not a sealed from atmospheric system. In my lifetime I have rebuilt my fair share of brake calipers with rust behind the pistons, and have replaced my fair share of failed wheel cylinders because of rust in the bores. Its got to get in there somehow.

The water has to get in there to start the corrosion somehow. DOT 3 has a bad tendency to wick up moisture over time. Power bleeding the system with a mityvac at all 4 wheels every 3 years until you get clean fluid out will pull a majority of the contaminated fluid out and extend the life of the lines.

Yes they can and do rust from the outside from road salt corrosion. However periodically spraying out the undercarriage and framerails with a power washer or taking it to the you do it yourself car wash setup with a power washer to flush away road salt and dirt on the outside along with hosing out the wheel wells, and cab rockers goes a long way to keeping that and body rust from happening on the outside

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[Moparmat2000]

Nice work on the hose brackets. I hope you're OK with me stealing the concept because it looks a lot better than what I did.

Do it, i dont mind, its a great idea. I am all about clean and safe installs. You should be able to find those aircraft fluid line clamps on evilbay. Thats why i put that part number up there. I will be using them to run my brakeline and fuel lines along the subframe connectors on my project car too.

 

[Moparmat2000]

Heres some on evilbay that appear to have stainless strapping. The MS21919WCH5 is the one you want to get. The #5 is the clamp grip diameter. Its perfect for that hose. Stay away from the WDG5 clamps. WDG is the coding for aluminum strapping. It wont hold up under there. The WCH is coding for stainless steel. I work in aerospace and this is pretty much how the part number breaks down.

MS (military standard)
21919 (cushioned strap clamp adel)
WDG (stainless steel band const)
5 (grip diameter measured in16ths of an inch, so this clamp being a 5 will work on a 5/16" diameter line)

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[454cid]

Nice work on the hose brackets. I hope you're OK with me stealing the concept because it looks a lot better than what I did.

Extra twisty ties you had on hand from trash bags???

 

[Moparmat2000]

Extra twisty ties you had on hand from trash bags???

Those paper coated wire twisty ties come in super handy when building up wiring harnesses. I have a small box of em I use them to hold everything in place and where the wires need to peel off out of the harness when i wrap it. I have a factory repop harness mocked up in my 67 cuda. I have it unwrapped because i am adding in an 8 ga wire for an upgraded alternator, and wiring in an ammeter bypass, de wiring points type voltage reg , de wiring the ballast resistor, as well as wiring in electric choke,, headlight relays, and HEI 4 pin setup to fire a factory mopar electronic distributor.

The wire ties keep it all tidy and allow me to add wires into the harness, as well as peel off out of it where needed. Once its wired up how its needed to be, i will remove it from the engine bay with ties intact, and wrap it with black vinyl non stick tape as the factory did it. As i head along with the tape, i will remove and discard the ties as i go.

 

[Knuckle Dragger]

Extra twisty ties you had on hand from trash bags???

Not on brakes. Similar to Moparmat's but not quite as clean. I used the insulated clamps my bracket just isn't as cool.

 

[Moparmat2000]

Thanks for the kudos on the brackets Knuckle Dragger. I work in the aerospace industry. I just tend to get really OCD about everything. Thats why i posted pix as i went. Figured i would leave a road map of sorts in case anybody here liked them and wanted to copy my efforts, to me that is the sincerest form of flattery.

 

[Moparmat2000]

So i dug thru my mess of a home shop tool box and found an old mityvac rebuild kit i bought but never used, so i took this thing apart, and scrubbed all the metal parts with a brass brush and isopropyl alcohol, and blew them out with compressed air. New seals lubed up with some dow corning DC33 o ring lube. It will pull and hold vacuum. So now i am on the hunt on evilbay for a 2" vacuum gage with bottom mount 1/8" NPT thread that has a dual scale that reads in vacuum and kPa. Every one i seem to find with that thread size and a dual scale in about the price i want to spend is 1.5" diameter till i came across this vacuum gage which meets my requirements. It also has a rubber bumper to protect the housing from drop damage, which is what did my original gage in. Your gonna get a laugh out of the ebay listing. I'm thinking hell, if it works it works lol, watch out for the redline or your gonna have a blowout lol.

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[Ken K]

Heres 2 pix of the master cylinder lid and seal on a 1994 C1500. This is the OEM part. Circled on the first pic is a small semicircle punched hole in the master cylinder rubber gasket, the circled pic of the lid shows a channel by which atmospheric pressure is allowed to vent into the system. It is done this way to keep dirt out, but let air to vent into the reservoir none the less. So its not a sealed from atmospheric system.
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There's the problem, if you have this.
The first picture with the hole punctured in the "Atmospheric" seal is not factory. This hole to allow moisture into the reservoir is NOT factory and should be replaced. New lid seal do not have this hole, so it is now defective.
The second photo showing the channel is the top side of the bladder seal to allow air in as fluid levels change. The master cylinder reservoir cannot be vented to atmosphere as shown in photo #1, as the seal is designed to expand with concentric rings to follow the brake fluids' drop. These rings are worked by hand into a flat configuration to allow for re-filling with clean fresh brake fluid.
As for wheel cylinder and caliper rust, the seals maybe compromised but subject to service as requested in the maintenance schedule. I have had only two customer request it and one I sold the service to.

Hunters who drive thru water and those with boats, the hubs, calipers and shoes transfer heat into the wheel cylinders, then cool when they hit water . This is proven to draw moisture into the cylinders / calipers due to cooling as the temperature changes rapidly. Bearing Buddies keep a positive pressure on trailers hub to help prevent this, but still not fool proof. I rebuild calipers by the thousands. Using crocus cloth or now scotch-brite to remove this goo and prepare the bore. I used "Flex-Stone" hones on wheel cylinders, cleaned and looked for pitting.
Even with a "Good" master cylinder seal, properly installed, will still require brake system service / flushing over time. As the price of wheel cylinders and re-man calipers came down and where more available over the years, few rebuild these components. But once you have had one apart, you know why.

You have found the reason water in your brake fluid, that drops the boiling point of DOT 3 to less than 264 degrees F. This can cause a spongy pedal and brake fade quicker than normal.

 

[Moparmat2000]

This master cylinder seal is OEM from 1994. If you look at the pic, It doesnt have bladders in it to allow for fluid level change and not create a vacuum. It has had that semicircle punched hole in it from day 1. I have owned this truck from day 1, i have done all the mtx on it since day 1. Have never replaced either of these parts since day 1. There is no way i could make a perfect punched semicircle like that. It was obviously factory done. Now if it had moveable bladders in it like some other master cylinders have, then i can understand it not having a hole punched in it. Sorry but i disagree. Now if i can get a replacement seal with the moveable bladders in it that will be a better choice. If you were looking at these systems on these trucks new in 1994, and ordered a replacement seal, it would have been the same type design and would have had a vent hole punched in it.