Taylon

So, I drove up to my office yesterday and parked my truck like I usually do. I was busy moving some stuff around when I happened to notice fluid coming out from under my truck...alot of it. It smelled like brake fluid, and when I opened the hood I could see it gushing out of the brake lines. The line rusted through.

It's the brake line coming from the master cylinder closest to the cab and going downwards, with a spiral/coil in the middle of the length. It plugs into some sort of tri-square connecter.

I'm curious if anyone knows where I could get just this line? Or maybe someone knows the sizes or names of the end pieces... it has what I consider a medium size bolt that screws into the master cylinder, and a small one that secures it to the rectangular piece. It's the 4.9L i6, 5spd manual... I noticed it looks a bit different than the v8 brake lines.

I can't seem to find any online except for whole kits. I'll just suck it up and buy the whole kit if I have to but the other lines are clean, so it'd be nice to just replace this one. Need the right one though.

Thanks!

btw, I'm very lucky the line didn't rupture thirty minutes earlier in rush hour traffic @ 70

Fast Hampster

Looks like you're talking about the line connecting master cylinder and some ABS module (mounted on the frame) - hope this will help. I think that if your upper brake line got rusted through, replacing all of them right now is actually a very good idea.

aliens8mycow

I'd have to agree - you can either replace them all now, or replace them all later (and the next one might rupture in traffic). Once you replace the weak link, the next weakest link will rear it's head soon enough.

dewman

It all sounds like good advice to me. You don't want to fool around when it comes to your brakes.

Taylon

Thanks for the advice, I think you're all right... went ahead and ordered the whole set yesterday. Any big headaches I should know about when changing these? I'm gonna have a whole lot of bleeding to do... oh i cant wait...

Thanks!

aliens8mycow

This is just me, but I'd recommend draining all of the brake fluid from the entire system, and filling with new. If you're well-practiced in bleeding brakes, you're pretty well set.

Honest Don

a quick tip for bleeding the system... start at the wheel furthest away. when all the line are in, crack the bleeder screw for right rear... go in the house have a beer. when you come out and the fluid is dripping from the wheel cylinder, that wheel is bled. Repeat the same for the left rear... another beer. Now that the rear is bled, Crack the right front... another beer. Finish up with the left front, and yup, another beer! Be sure to check fluid levels in between beers, or bleeder screws depending on how you want to look at it.

I do this all the time and it takes the frustration out of it. It also gives you time to do other things with the truck in the same amount of time. Ofcourse if you were pressed for time, have someone help you, or just get a mighty vac... I prefer the first method, with my friend budweiser helping me!!!

oh one last thing, make sure the cap is off the master or it the fluid will never make it down.

Good old Bill

Honest Don, you're a man after my own heart, except for the budweiser, I prefer Miller lite. Oh, and because this is an open forum, we call it reading a service manual. Don't want to be a bad influence. On a serious note, for those who do not believe in gravity bleeding, its in chapter 6 of the Service Manual, just keep the master cylinder full of fluid or its bench bleeding time.

aliens8mycow

Sorry Bill - you're outnumbered. As a firm supporter of local business, I drive a Ford truck because the F150's are made 10 minutes from my house. I drink Bud because it's made about 3 hours from my house. (yeah, 3 hours is not quite local... but that's ok)

Good old Bill

I surrender to the masses of two! I really like the taste of Bud Lite, but get headaches with just a couple. Does that mean I should switch brands so I won't over drink. Go away!