[6pack] "Perished" brake lines?

[Foster, Stan]

Phil, over time rubber degrades. It is as if it dries out, shrinks and
hardens. That is perished. You often see the first signs of this on the outer
surface of the hose. If you bend the hose slightly you see cracks in the
surface. If the hose is very far gone the cracks are apparent from a distance.
Eventually the interior rubber breaks down and the hose starts to expand
instead of transferring hydraulic force to the brakes or worst case ruptures
and you lose that circuit, or worse.

Stan

-----Original Message-----
From: 6pack-bounces+stan.foster=hp.com at autox.team.net
[mailto:6pack-bounces+stan.foster=hp.com at autox.team.net] On Behalf Of Phil
Beckman
Sent: Wednesday, August 20, 2008 9:11 AM
To: 6pack at autox.team.net
Subject: [6pack] "Perished" brake lines?

So in prep for this trip to central Indiana I'm planning over labor day
weekend I decided to just take my TR6 to a local britsh car mechanic and have
him give the car a once over.  Its been like 8 years since a professional
mechanic looked at the car so I figure its probably not a bad thing to do
anyway.  I've taken the car there before (8 years ago) and he come very
highly
recommended.

Anyway, he found a couple things worth doing but one of the things he
mentioned that I should consider doing sometime soon was replace the rubber
brake lines.  He said its not a major safety concern right now but that the
lines are "perished",  I have no clue what that means and didn't bother to
ask
him becuase he said its not a major concern right now.

Anybody know what it means for rubber brake lines to "perish"?


Phil Beckman
Libertyville, IL
'73 TR6