>Use the original pipes for a pattern and flare away taking care to watch for
>the two types of flare single and double.
I was going to sit this one out but.....
There are two types of flares that can be found in British hydraulics, A
double flare and a bubble flare. NEVER EVER USE A SINGLE FLARE IN A
BRAKE SYSTEM. Older British cars use the double flares and new ones us
the metric style bubble flare. Then there are transition years where you
can see both styles on a car.
I ended up getting a flair kit for each type through Eastwood company and
have replumbed both of my cars with them.
Brake fittings:
US and UK brake fittings are incompatible. They will both screw into one
another but they will not reliably work together.
The UK fitting has a long smooth front followed by the threads. The US
male fitting is short and threaded the entire length.
The UK female fitting is much deeper than the US female fitting.
Connect a UK male fitting to a US female fitting and there will only be a
couple of threads engaged when the flare is seated.
Connect a male US fitting to a UK female fitting and all the threads of
the male fitting will be engaged without the flare being seated. Only
the threads hold the fluid in place and the air out. The flare remains
unseated.
Also, while they will thread into one another, the threads are slightly
different.
I purchased a bunch of new UK hydraulic fittings and made my own. Since
I needed to purchase lengths of tubing anyway, I purchased already made
up fittings from my local auto parts store. I got the next longest size
than I needed with flares that matched at least one end.
I cut the tube to length by cutting off one end. I removed the US
fittings & replaced them with UK fittings then flared the cut end. It
was cheaper than buying already made up universal UK brake fittings and I
only needed to make half the number of flares than if I started with
plain tubing.
Bottom line - Whatever you do NEVER use single flares and NEVER mix US
and UK hydraulic fittings.
TeriAnn Wakeman Marigold Ltd.
Santa Cruz, California Web design, site updating, testing
webmaster@overlander.net search engine optimization, graphics
and more
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