I am reworking the clutch hydraulic lines on my 69 FHC I am resurrecting. I bought a new pre-bent set from one of the usuals that claimed to be bent per the factory specs. Problem is the passenger side tube has an additional vertical bend (parallel to the firewall) just past where it goes through the engine support. My originals, at least what I believe are original, follow the small flange on the firewall and clamp at the corner of the firewall and inboard footwell. The new ones with the additional bend places the 90 degree bend where it heads to the flexible hose way above the top of the footwell. The driver side tube is close to what mine looks like and with a little tweak, should fit.
Does anyone have a good picture of how the passenger side clutch tubes route?
Geo,
Thanks for the picture and this helps a lot! The routing on my car matches yours which I suspected would be the case. I believe the tubes I got are wrong and have called the supplier to tell them of the issue. Hopefully, they will correct the design. I only really needed the MC inlet adn slave cylinder hard pipe but thought I would just change them all as the old ones had 40 year old fluid and a fresh start seemed good. I may end up just flushing them and re-using these.
Im looking at the Hydraulic clutch line photo you Rec’d from Geo last November. I have the same line on my 66 series 1 4.2 2+2. My lines have grunge in them from sitting for 20+ years but not rusty outside. were you able to soak , flush and reuse yours?
Steven,
Since it was relatively easy, I replaced the clutch lines with new ones. This was the first hydraulic system I re-built so went new as I did not know how well I could clean them. For the brakes, I flushed them with brake cleaner and fresh fluid until they ran clean and re-used them. I have had the car in the road for 8 months now and no issues with the old brake lines at all. In hindsight, I think I could have cleaned the clutch lines too.
Thanks for that insight Doug. I was looking at the, IMHO, rather high cost for the new lines which prompted me to ask if yours cleaned up. My car has probably been sitting a lot longer than 20 years, I was not able to get brake cleaner to go thru the long line across the firewall, its off the car soaking right now. I read some other archived posts about copper lines, should probably look at that next. Pretty sure I purchased a set of new brake lines but did not like the look of them, the old ones look better to me. If copper is now a preferred line material, I intend on going that route, or at least looking into it. I suppose the usuals are selling the copper lines?
The lines you want are copper/nickel (often referred to NiCopp or Cupro as part of the description), not pure copper, which work hardens and would be very dangerous to use as brake lines.
Thanks Steve. I may have found a place stateside that supplies these preformed, not sure i can sort out the different flares, bubbles whatever found myself. Someone sold me copper gas line a couple years ago. now I wonder about using that. Feeling very inadequate at the moment. Unfortunately, I got off track and left this project sit too long. This is my dedicated start to the finish line without further interruptions. Right now, I’m in the process of sorting out what I have, what I bought in the past and what I still need. Plan to install the engine first, brake lines after front suspension is done, torsion bars set. The IRS was professionally rebuilt years ago and is back in. Looking at my clutch lines was the inspiration to ask about brake lines… NiCopp is fine for the clutch I assume.
