My WTF am I doing Build/Maintenance Thread

Those fuckers are on there good. Flare nut wrench had the same result. Gonna hit it with some fire today and see if that helps.

 

Vice Grips worked on my stuck-on nuts, no slippage.

 

Kinky

 

SOL for me. The smaller ones I have are cheapos for odd jobs and things around, they are not locking tight enough. My "Good" vise grip is too large and won't lock onto the nut diameter.

I have some MAP gas and I'm gonna blast it with some heat then use a can of inverted air to give it a quick cold blast to try and loosen things up...I just need a can of compressed air now - completely forgot to pick it up at HD yesterday.

 

Got the fucker out. Had to remove the connections at the ABS.



Blasted one of the lines with the torch and was able to pop it out no issue. The other one is a loss, I'm going to have to either cut it or get a new line.

Brake booster indeed has fluid in it. Shopping around for one of those as well now too. Been a real expensive year just keeping up so far.

 

I gave up and ordered new pipes online.

Local Mazda's are a week wait as well, might as well ship it to my house. Oreilly's has 'bend your own' brake tubes in lengths 8-40" in the 2 major diameters. Picked up 2 but found out last night only one fitting on each is the right diameter to fit into the master. I haven't bothered trying fitting the smaller end into the ABS - the stocks ends look identical and the 10mm flare wrench is too large.

Went by 2 brake shops to see if they had ideas or would help either cut and flare or have some suggestions. Their suggestions were to order new pipes. I have a flare kit but no ends or bubble die and I've never done it before.

Damn good thing I work from home.

 

Pretty easy to do the flares yourself if you have the fitting and tool, working from home certainly has it's perks. Good luck

 

That's what I keep hearing. Asked an old coworker about it, forgot he was a master technician specializing in brakes long ago and pretty much echoed what I've been reading and told.

I'm gonna see if I can find the proper flare nuts and die locally and pick it up this evening and give it a wack. I have a single flare kit in my garage I bought long ago and never used, HF special so nothing fancy.

It's more the whole "wait for shit to get delivered" aspect that annoys me when I'm so damn close but 'stuck'.

And thank you. And for everyone else's feedback and such.

 

After dicking around with several Autozones, Oreilly's, NAPA (and varying levels of intelligence) I give up on making my own brake lines....this time. Having a hard time finding an end that is 1/4" diameter that also fits into the master. I bought 2 packs of different part numbers but neither of them seated correctly. Last trip out I took the master with me to test in store. When I asked the kid for flare nuts he looked at me like I was an alien - I left. I can definitely see doing so in the future. But I figured I have oem lines on order, should be here this week.

Got the booster out. Apart from the nuts way up in the dash is a cake job at this point. Look at all the room for activities! Looked clean on both sides of the firewall. There may have been some trace fluid on the brake booster boot connecting to the pedal but it was very very little.


Nasty booster - looks like bottom left had the worst of the mess.


Mazda OEM brake booster is $580 - bought a reman for $160 ($190 + $30 core) - picking it up when my GF gets home.

Waiting on the brake lines at this point. I'll get everything back in except for those in the next few days. New transmission lines from master to slave, oil change and put on my shiny new undertray.

 

You can reuse the old fittings if you can't find replacement ones. Unless they are rounded off. Even if that's the case go to a junk yard and grab those lines or fittings if possible

 

I only ended up with 1 "bad" fitting. It was seized inside the master pretty good and at this point I was ready to sacrifice it thinking it wouldn't be hard to get a new on - I was wrong. The fitting is all chewed up and I wouldn't put it on anything else. Hell I even went as far as cutting it off the stock pipe and put a new one on. That's when I realized the threads don't actually screw into the master...they just kinda wobble down. Eh not too worried about it - I'll figure out whatever I need and have them for the future.

 

So got it sorted?

Don't forget to put the fitting on before you flare the line

 

This post triggers me. I have done that once before after running the line the whole car and in a tight spot to where I'd have to take it all out to do it again.

 

Haha! I had everything ready to and was ready to flare when I realized I did not have the end on.

No still not sorted - the fittings don't screw in, they just "go in" and pull right back out so they are slightly too small. I'll be honest I have no idea what I'm looking for on these and have kinda shelved it. Now if my damn new lines don't ship by Friday I'll be out hunting on Saturday so I can get my damn car running again. I'm kinda stuck unless I take my GF to work in the morning but fuck if I want to drive to where she is, gotta go down some real shit traffic areas in Dallas I'd rather just not have to do anymore - hell I did that drive for 8 years.

 

To add some more fun my slave line nipple popped off in the cylinder. I can either try the old one and hope is still seals or try and get the end out.

Brake booster in, cleaned out my reservoir and installed that to master and master to booster, pedal all back together. Was working my way back up when I noticed the new line didn't fit in the slave.

Still no word on the pipes I ordered so tomorrow I'll go hunting.

 

Got the nipple (giggity) out and will just use the new pipe, keep the older one just in case, I was able to securely seat the nipple back on the end.

Emailed about the brake pipes - had to order them and will ship out middle of next week....yay.

Second guessing my DIY cable splice - I need to get out of the house so as soon as the GF gets home I'm gonna run out and see what I can find. I should probably just replace the whole damn thing. Or use proper splice/butt connectors, we'll see. Should be home in a bit, granted this means I have to go to the store for dinner but since I do all the cooking its probably better anyways,

 

I gave up finding flare nuts - Everywhere I went the threading was too small to physically screw in the master. I guess I'll have to find the whitepaper for the thing - I haven't seen anything about the dimensions of the thing.

The brake pipes I ordered are set to arrive tomorrow sometime so I can get some movement again.

I attempted to bench bleed the master but lacked - again - anything I could screw into the ports to prevent leaking during the process. Think my power bleeder will be enough or should I attempt the bench bleed again?

 

This should suffice for now for the battery cable.





Having no knowledge of where these wires ran after going into the loom (I think I found the other end) and second guessing the flames and heat in the engine bay to solder the wires I took a single line repair kit, dual here for example I had bought first.



Cut the end off where it starts to curve and filed it clean so it would fit back in the stock connector. No idea if the fuse block is needed but tried to keep it close to the same as possible. Replaced the actual terminal clamp on the stock assembly as well

 

So I got the tubes situated, performed a 'bench bleed' while the master was installed. Essentially ran some tubing with rubber fitting pressed into the out pipes that ran back to the reservoir - pumping the fluid back into its self while maintaining fluid level. The brake tubes are formed out of shape enough to cause fitment issues trying to screw into the master. I had already lined up the new pipes with the old pipes and bent to align as close as possible but apparently not close enough.

Then got stuck attempting to extract them again - got pissed off and came inside to drink beer. 'Read only Friday' tomorrow and boss man says go fix your damn car. So I'll start again tomorrow.

 

Pulled everything off - tried a true bench bleed - made a mess trying to get it installed - cussed a whole lot and cleaned up the mess.

Re-installed master and did an in car bench bleed again. Got one of the pipes seated and finger tightened, until not, on both ends. Still dicking with the other pipe, needs minor reforming to match the required curves.

This job can suck it so far.