Brake Hoses

Time: 6.5 hrs

Done today (and yesterday):

• Made up brake lines
• Pressure tested brake lines prior to install
• Installed brake lines to toe brakes and parking break area

TAF includes some plastic brake lines with the toe brake kit. They also supply a clear hose that you use in spots where rubbing may occur, so you slide the plastic brake line into the clear hose in these areas. I really didn’t line the idea of using plastic brake hose, especially outside connecting to the brake calipers on the wheels. I did some research and found this stainless steel braided hose with a PTFE (Teflon) inner hose from Fragola Performance Parts. Also Aeroquip seems to be popular for the RV builders, but for some reason that I can’t remember I chose to use the Fragola PTFE hose. It’s -4AN hose and is the same inner diameter of the brake lines supplied with the kit. It’s fairly light, though not as light as the plastic lines, but along with having to use the clear hose it’s probably close. I also found some really nice Kelvar braided hose from Goodyear (I think), but at $12/foot I can’t really afford that right now. Maybe I can swap it out some day in the future.

Rather then detailing the process of installing the fittings which has been done a few times (better then I can do) on YouTube, I’ll just mention what seems to have work for me. The above photo shows how far I trimmed back the braiding. You don’t want to trim too much because it seems like you need some braiding there for the collar to be able to push on the “olive”. I didn’t get the “spreader” tool that Fragola makes so I used a flat bladed screw drive and some needle nose pliers to separate and loosen the braiding so the “olive” (the brass piece) will slide onto the hose. With that said I will be buying the spreader, they say it works and doing it the way I did takes a long time and resulted in a few cuts from slipping with the screw driver. Also buy the AN wrenches, they’re only like $8. I tried to get by using electrical tape on wrenches and ended up scratch the first couple of fittings I put on. I ended up buying two -4AN wrenches so I could use one on the collar and one on the fitting. Also I found at least with this smaller hose that you don’t need the adapter that goes in the vise to hold the hose and fitting. I bought it because people said you can’t do it without it, but really didn’t use it, the wrenches worked better and there were a few hoses that I could only put the ends on after I ran it through the pedal assembly so using the wrenches was easier then trying to set up a vise near the fitting. It probably makes more sense with the large hoses. Lastly make sure to buy extra “olives”. In pressure testing the first hoses I made up I found that I needed to redo them. The fittings are reusable, but you’re not supposed the reuse the “olives”. To test the hoses I bought the pressure test kit made by Fragola. It’s like $13 and consists of two fittings: and end plug and one that has a bicycle type air filler. I just used my compressor to put air in the line. I only tested them up to about 100 psi. The lines are rated to 3000psi though.

I’ve been using my dremel with a cut off wheel to cut the braided hose and that seems to work pretty well. It leaves an OK cut, but once I get the braiding pulled back a bit I do a clean cut of the inner teflon tube with a sharp razor on a block of wood. It’s important that the teflon tube has a straight clean cut so that it fits into the “olive” tight when you screw the collar down onto the fitting.

 

Below are some photos of the finished lines. The only place I’m a little concerned is where the hose enters the tube from the rudder assembly right after the right angle fitting (co-pilot side). I originally was planning on using all straight fittings, but there’ just not enough room when the side goes on so the right angle fitting works really well. The think is that it does rub a little and will probably eventually rub through the steel braid. Then again this is where I was supposed to use the clear plastic tubing to pad the other plastic brake line. I’m think that the steel braid will hold up a lot better then the clear plastic. In any case I may try to wrap the lines or fit a grommet in there. I’ll have to see once I see how far the rudder pedals need to travel.

Pilot side pedals. Pretty similar to what is in the manual, but I found that running the line that leaves the bottom of the right cylinder to the parking brake lever was better to turn up towards 11 o’clock rather then down toward 7 o’clock.

A shot behind the pilot side pedals.

This is the co-pilot side. The pedals are fed from the brake reservoir into the top of he cylinders. This I left pretty much the same as the manual. The bottoms are also similar except I used a 90 deg. fitting instead of a straight fitting.

Another shot of the copilot side. I used a “Y” fitting instead of a “T”. You can also see where the hose enters the tubing for the pedal assembly. It rubs a little on the inside, but depending on how far the pedals need to travel it may not be that big of a concern. I may try to fit a thick split grommet in the ends of the tube. I’ll have to see what I can find.

Just a shot of the extra line run over to the parking brake area. I’m not exactly sure where it needs to run so I’ll have to cut and install the fittings later when I know better.