hey everybody!

Well, I gotta replace my rubber lines, so I was thinking, why not upgrade? So, who has stainless steel braided lines for a 79- 80? Racing Beat sells them, but I just want to make sure they fit right and everything. (SA people get shafted for things like this a lot.) They say they're not DOT approved, but I don't really care about that, as long as they fit and work right. Do I have to make any modifications or do they just thread right in?

Also, do they give you the chassis brake hose that goes to the rear axle, or do they just give you the two fronts?

Thanks

~b.k.

 

im swaping fb lines and all the rest onto my ride, if you have a doner car thats the route to take.

 

I have to replace my rubber lines to. I was wondering if I should upgrade or just go with the rubber? Let me know how your upgrade works. I may go the same route.

 

79-80 have a different thread pattern than the later years. im having little problems with this with my brake lines(80, GSLSE, and T2 parts) i too would sudjest switching to the later years lines. that way if you decide to switch to an GSLSE suspension later you wont need new lines. my .02

 

or disc rear in general.

 

are the racing beat SA lines cut for the FB or SA?

 

if they say sa (79-80), then they are sa.

 

I had a local hose shop make me them all.. Removed mine and they copied them in SS line.. they did it for 125.00. I had them in 2 hrs

 

If you stick with the rubber lines - do like they used to in the good 'ol days. My father would use zip ties on the rubber portions of the brake line every 1/4" or so. It really did work to firm up the pedal and provide better braking as the rubber lines can no longer expand or balloon with the zip ties on there... just a thought.

 

Russell also makes the SS-braided DOT-approved brake lines for our cars and the kits are under a $100, I believe...I've got a set in the garage I bought last year, I'm just waiting on the front brake pads to wear out so I can do the fronts all in one shot and get the cross-drilleds on at the same time...

 

I dunno, zip ties sounds like a weight penalty to me. LOL.

 

Wouldn't the SS lines be heavier too?

 

Have the RB SS lines on my SA. Bought them thru mazdatrix (friendlier folks). I bought the set that includes SS line for LSD FB rear end (with its different thread pitch) since i plan to swap in my FB spare rear end in sometime. So for now i just have the front SA replacement SS lines in. Beautiful fit, easy swap - and I am NO mechanic. You'll need to bleed your front brakes, this is an excellent time to get as much of the old brake fluid out as you can. I bought a set of speed bleeders - makes the bleeds 9now and in the future) a one-man snap.
Stu Aull
80GS
Alaska

 

Well, I got them and put them in a little while ago but I didn't notice much difference, so I was like, hmm, what's going on here? Well I did some things and now my brakes feel and work AWESOME!!!

First, bleed your brakes like crazy! After I put all the lines in, I sat in the car, and hit the pedal- it went down to the floor. awesome. bleed em!!!

So, I did that, and was feeling good, so I hit the brakes again- a little better, but where's the big difference, supposedly with SS lines? Well, shortly after that, I noticed that my brake pedal was A LOT stiffer with the emergency brake on... Well, it was quite an easy fix from there. Just read up on "adjusting rear brakes" in the shop manual, and I was good to go. As it turns out, my rear brakes were barely working! I just brought the shoes much closer to the drum so they actually do something now. Now, my pedal feels great, with good firmness, and great control. 100% better than rubber lines, (or could adjusting the rear brakes be the remedy?) The only way to find out would to put the rubber lines on again, but I'm not doing that.

So

Moral of story- Adjust your rear brakes if ya got drums and SS lines feel real good.

~b.k.

 

The mazdatrix lines are DOT approved, I just got mine in a couple days ago.

http://www.mazdatrix.com/j-brakes.htm

 

mine weren't

I got them from mazdatrix, they were packaged by racing beat, and had "russel" tags on them.

What makes them non-DOT approved?

 

yeah oh my GOD was that ******* annoying, i ended up spending like $90 on adapters and converters to get my frankenstein together... ugh.

i had an SA master and hard lines with all FB brakes and axle... so i needed lines that were m10x1.0mm on one end and m10x1.25mm on the other end (and needless to say, nobody premakes those lines..)

but, it IS doable, i know, because i did it. ( i dont remember how)

 

B.K.,

Where did you get those SS brake lines? All I see at Racing Beat or Mazdatrix are lines sets for rear disk sets ups for the SA.

I am interested in stainless too, but have yet to see a disk/drum set that are DOT.

Thanks!

 

Nevermind... 2 seconds late posting that question!