I've had my '97 since March 2007. Have kept it going thanks to this site and my own stubbornness. But I think I hit the wall on this one.
The car is in California now, but lived most of its life in Ohio. Rust everywhere. Brake fluid was leaking out of the steel lines where they connect to the rear proportioning valve, at about 2 oz a day, so it was a critical fix. Got the lines and valve from a specialized yard in Sacramento, $80, perfect shape.
Getting the brake lines out of this car is so much harder than any car I've ever seen in my life. Of course most of the plastic clips are brittle and broke, that's to be expected. But it feels like they put the brake lines on the bare body, then built the rest of every *%##[email protected] system on top of them. The fuel lines have to be disconnected. There is one plastic clip hidden up on top of the fuel filler neck that I finally just yanked out far enough to bust off. Everything is totally rotten, and I finally just ripped the old lines out, they were rotten anyway. But now I realize I'll probably have to drop the fuel tank so I can remove the filler neck so I can get the new ones in. Unless I cut the new lines and make a flare coupling (I know, no compression couplings!).
Has anybody ever done this job? Any tricks? Should I even bother, given the constant other problems (oil leaks, front suspension parts, etc)?
Ben
The car is in California now, but lived most of its life in Ohio. Rust everywhere. Brake fluid was leaking out of the steel lines where they connect to the rear proportioning valve, at about 2 oz a day, so it was a critical fix. Got the lines and valve from a specialized yard in Sacramento, $80, perfect shape.
Getting the brake lines out of this car is so much harder than any car I've ever seen in my life. Of course most of the plastic clips are brittle and broke, that's to be expected. But it feels like they put the brake lines on the bare body, then built the rest of every *%##[email protected] system on top of them. The fuel lines have to be disconnected. There is one plastic clip hidden up on top of the fuel filler neck that I finally just yanked out far enough to bust off. Everything is totally rotten, and I finally just ripped the old lines out, they were rotten anyway. But now I realize I'll probably have to drop the fuel tank so I can remove the filler neck so I can get the new ones in. Unless I cut the new lines and make a flare coupling (I know, no compression couplings!).
Has anybody ever done this job? Any tricks? Should I even bother, given the constant other problems (oil leaks, front suspension parts, etc)?
Ben