Has anyone bent there own hard lines for the rear axle. I am toying with the idea, so that I can run them like I want to, it doesnt SEEM to difficult but........

I bent mine on my K5


You need a decent tubing bender, a tubing cutter and a double flare tool though.

Double flares are a PITA, you can buy straight tubes in pre made lenghts at your local store. I used a bender on some of mine, but most of the time somthing like an axle tube works just as well. Just pull it around some sort of cylinder, dont try to bend it with your hand or you will kink it.

Double flares are easy if you have a decent tool. I use this bender from Harbor Freight and this double flare tool from Autozone. I just never returned the "rental" tool. It's only $35 IIRC.

You can make the flares easier by cutting the tube with a dremel tool. Using a tubing cutter will harden the steel on the edge where it's cut. I usually only do the dremel tool trick on bigger tubing though.

double flares are the suck it is somewhat about practice.

I tried and tried with the autozone flare tool and kept coming up with some sucky flares after making a couple of good ones. I went down to the tubing shop and had him flare the ends with the same flare tool I was using and they were perfect.

BTW I think it is 3/16" or maybe 5/16" but I was able to use standard line on the nissan, but had to use the M10 1.0 fittings on the standard line.

That AutoZone rental tool is the same piece of crap you can buy just about anywhere for $20. I made one crappy flare with it, the second one it broke on (stripped out).

I spent $90 on a KD Tools 2190 double-flaring toolkit and proceeded to do about a dozen flares re-plumbing my Blazer. Definitely worth the money.

http://www.sjdiscounttools.com/kdt2190.html

That's defenitely nice. I recommended the Autozone one because it is the best cheap one you can find. I originally bought a $60 one from NAPA and it broke the first time I used it. I've made dozens of flares with my Autozone one. I did manage to break it though.

It won't do 3/8" steel for sure, but it works good on everything else I've tried.

Ok, I need some schooling. knowing this skill will help me greatly during my sas.

How do you use the flare tool? I mean whats the theory and how does it work.

Single flare/ double flare. Whats the difference?

For my sas I plan to have all my brake lines made for me. If I do them myself I'm sure I'll save $$$.

You could get AN adaptors from polyperformance, an AN flare is pretty easy to do and kinda bling.

quote:

Originally posted by LordBiotre:
How do you use the flare tool? I mean whats the theory and how does it work.

Single flare/ double flare. Whats the difference?

The tool clamps the tubing and has a press and madrel so that the flare can be formed onto the end of the tube.

Single flare is simply widening (flaring) the end of the tube to mate with an angled female fitting.

Double-flares have two layers of metal that comprise the flare. You first use a mandrel to "bubble" the tube, then switch back to the single-flare press to flatten the metal back over itself. All standard automotive brake system hydraulics have this type of flare. Some newer vehicles have a bubble-flare, but this takes a different set of fittings and is not pertinent here.

I did a search on Google for you but most of the pages that came up had really crappy pictures.

A single flare is going to leak. The problem is that the brake lines are welded tubes. If you do a single flare you are trying to make that weld seam seal your brake system. A double flare folds the outside of the tube back in on itself making the smooth outside the sealing surface.

Single flares also tend to tear at the weld seam when they are stretched.

Here's a decent writeup on how to do a double flare.
http://www.stu-offroad.com/suspension/flaretool/ft-1.htm

Here is something pretty cool, Never ran it and dont know anthing about it other that I would like to try it out on my next rig.

http://www.speedwaymotors.com/p/1993,8_Nylon-Brake-Line-Kit.html

A rock/stick/etc would take that out in a heartbeat. I wouldn't put plastic brake lines on any rig, much less a big badass trail rig.

Double flares are easy if you use a good tool. Snap-on and Mac sell the same tool with different branding but they both work fine.