Repair-It

Oh, this routine? I know this routine.

Got to transfer station, stopped to do recycling, then pulled forward for trash. Stopped, went into reverse, backed up and right when I was going to stop it went to the floor. Did my trash, drove home. Probably touched the pedal once before leaving the transfer station and like once or twice in my driveway. No parking brake even.

Got home, found this. Looked like either wheel cylinder or the brake line. Had Jamie stomp on the pedal. It sprayed out of the brake line like 1/2" before the wheel cylinder.

RockAuto doesn't carry lines. Moving on.

eBay has some options.

I can get a rear kit which is just both axle lines in stainless, prebent, for $60.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1994-2001-Ram- ... SwYf9bB0vC

Or Dorman makes a full kit in stainless, prebent. Here is the kit part number. 919-257.
https://www.dormanproducts.com/p-103504 ... 2520Pickup

I am leaning towards the rear and I'd think I may just do both axle lines. Looks fairly easy. May not even need to jack up or remove wheels because trucks.

But I just noticed the $60 kit has no armor. Maybe I should get the Dorman kit then and just use what I need, and I'll have a full kit on hand for...the future.

I need to choose the kit very carefully as there are a LOT of possible configurations.

Man. It came down to this precise combination:
98-99
78.0 Inch Bed Length; Extended Cab Pickup; 2-Wheel ABS; RWD.

There are no fewer than 8 full line kits available for a 99 Dodge Ram.

$130.47 on prime: https://www.amazon.com/Dorman-919-257-S ... an+919-257

Does not appear to be on eBay.

Actually only $110 with free shipping on Summit: https://www.summitracing.com/parts/rnb-919-257

So maybe I should just get the full kit. I will probably just do the two axle lines to get it back on the road. Looks like the kit has 11 individual prebent lines. Looks like the long front to rear one comes folded in half for shipping. Also looks like there is no armor. Maybe because 2WD? The factory line is armored...and so are my B-bodies.

This has happened to you way too many times! Is it just the environment you live in?

Yeah it has. And if I drive my STS long enough it'll happen to that car, too.

Of course it is the environment. But from what I've seen, domestic stuff tends to be worse than other stuff. Maybe one of the most notorious is the GMT-800 pickups. There probably isn't one rolling around in the rust belt on its original brake lines. Make no mistake, Fords and Dodges rust, too.

The lines were backordered but I didn't expect the ship date to be so delayed. They may have shipped today but not positive. I will get them next week so no transfer station for me this weekend. It is possible I may have the right fittings on hand and I could just bend up some copper nickel and get it back on the road. But if I do that I probably won't want to replace it later with stainless and I'd rather just have the stainless on there.

I soaked the wheel cylinder bleeders and also the line nuts again. Hopefully everything loosens up without too much struggling. I guess I don't care if I have to vice grip the line nuts...

Ugh, it shipped today.

Scheduled delivery: Thursday 9/20/2018 by end of day

OK FedEx, don't let me down...

Yay!

Delivered Thursday 9/20/2018 at 11:41 am

Of course now my neck is so bad that I highly doubt I will be up to the job...having a FML moment.

Tackled this today. It was painful, awkward and slow with the neck handicap. Probably took a good 4 hours.

Here are the highlights:
- Rather than screw around with a flare nut wrench on the line nuts, I got smart and just broke the lines off at the fittings so I could use a regular 6 point socket for best grip. This worked great on all 4 line nuts (did both axle lines).
- Next I worked on the bleeder. I spent quite a while on the driver's side bleeder with different sockets and vice grips. I deformed it pretty badly and ultimately just called it. So I drove to Napa for two wheel cylinders, at a bargain $10/ea. This was a good move for two reasons: 1) no time wasted on the other side. Didn't touch the line nut OR the bleeder knowing I had a new wheel cylinder in a box and 2) these might be the original wheel cylinders so not a bad idea at all to get a new pair on there. I did get the bleeder out once I put the driver's side wheel cylinder in a vice but it made no sense to put the old one back in.
- Driver's side drum basically came right off. Shoes have some life left. Did not measure.
- Passenger side drum required me to torch the hub and then a couple whacks loosened it right up. Luckily neither was really stuck in a wear groove which is kind of what I was expecting, so I never had to touch the adjusters.
- I basically disconnected the three springs/linkage trio and was able to remove the wheel cylinders without removing the shoes, just had to pull them away from the wheel cylinder a little bit. Awesome.
- Wire wheeled the plungers (or pushrods....I forget what they are called). - The pre-bent lines were not bent perfectly but I just bended as necessary to get the fit to an acceptable level. The length was good. Turns out the rear lines are armored after all, as they should be.
- The lines each come with a tag stating their location on the vehicle. Nice. - New wheel cylinder with old bolts, driver's side. - The other side bending was off by a wider margin but I just made sure it wasn't going to rub on anything it shouldn't and that should be just fine. Road test reveals better than ever pedal feel. The dead travel is really quite modest for a 19 year old truck. I'm good with this.

This took up a lot of my day, which is why I wouldn't just volunteer to do all of the lines. It is time consuming.

It would appear that I forgot to put the bleeder cap back on for the drivers side. Well that's gone forever...

Oh I forgot one interesting tidbit. When the line leaked originally, eventually the ABS and Brake light came on, as expected. However, after I was done, they were still on, despite a very good pedal. I tried kind of stomping on it but I didn't want to bust something else. A little research suggested that you have to reset the computer (battery cable). Hmm. I did try shutting it off and restarting it once or twice. Then I gave in and decided to disconnect but before I did, I wanted to move it one last time to in front of my garage so I could check the tire pressure and inflate if necessary. Well on that last restart, the lights went out. So....whatever that means.