1999 F350 Leaking brake line

Mar 06, 2005 4 Replies

Hello all,



I have an 1999 F350 4x4 V10 gas dually long bed. The metal brake line that runs to the rear wheels is very rusty and has a pin hole leak that is roughly underneath the driver door. I have several questions.



Why is the brake line so rusty? There are several other lines next to it which all look normal, one of which is the fuel line, and the others for gas tank vapor stuff.



Does Ford sell a preshaped replacement line, or do you just get a length of metal brake line and cut it to the proper length, flair the ends, and install?



It looks like I would need to drop the fuel tank to get to the junction where the brake line splits at the rear axle to feed both rear wheels. It does appear that I will have to siphon gas out of the fuel tank and remove it after disconnecting the emissions and fuel lines.



Bleeding the brakes looks routine as I read about it in the CD service manual I have. Any thing to watch out for?



Thanks for any help.



Jack


PS. Please remove the xyz from my email address if you want to email me rather than post to the newsgroup.



I have had some of the same problems, but my truck is much older. It seems to me that they fail from localized corrosion. I think this is in a spot where the front tire throws trash on them. I think that because I can't think of any other explanation.Generally they'll be in great shape except for one little spot where they've rusted through.

Personally I don't flare the ends myself. You can buy brakes lines with ends on them for a few bucks. I bet Ford sells a formed line, but I don't buy them. I could be wrong.

You can get a flare tool from your local auto parts store for $10-15 and do it all yourself.

doing a double end flair as required fro brake lines can be tricky, just buy the lines at NAPA pre-flared

Yeah, that's truen but it's not too bad if you're somewhat mechanically inclined. I did a few practice flares before diving into the real pieces. So far they've all worked fine.

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