Ok my drama of loosing all brake pressure while speeding off the highway was not due to me not tightening all the bleeder screws as previously thought. The passerger side caliper to rubber hose joint failed on both sides! The hard line had no flare left and the rubber hose had a nasty crack in it. The rubber has Ate stamped on it so it might be OEM.
So how the frick do I get the upper joint a part? I cant figure out how to release the retaining clip. Any thoughts?
Thanks...

It just pulls out. It's a spring-tension slip fit.
PB Blaster to help free gunk & corrosion, then good sharp-toothed Vise-Grip pliers to really grab the clip. This can also give you a place to tap with a hammer if needed.

Vice grips and a good firm pull usually work for me.

be warned... If the lines have never been changed before, this often leads to needing to redo the soft lines and all the hard lines too, since the fittings are probably totally rusted in place and strip out on removal.

The good news is that the hard lines are not as hard to do as you think, after you get the hang of it.

Zach

I need to think of ways I can still blame this on you....

Root, you could go this route;

EVERYONE KNOWS that original brake lines are dangerously old and should have been swapped.

See, it can STILL be blamed... No worries...

Then again, I wonder how many still have original lines on their brakes. I bet a bunch!

with Rich. Really clamp down hard with ViseGrips and tap-tap-tap with a hammer to get it to slide.

Also... I agree with everyone else. This is pretty much, flat out, no doubt about it.... YOUR FAULT (somehow).

And just a little FYI, not all the "replacement" lines fit. The ones I got from eric were not only cheaper than the other guys, but actually fit perfectly.

And it is your fault

my brother Dino.....

you must hav edone something very bad in the past to be punished with all this bad kharma.

back in high school did you deflower many virgins?

did you bugger all your neibors dogs.?

did you fart in elevators as you got out and left the stench for the new crowd getting on?

i'm not sure if i can remain your brother in teenerhood until these questions are answered. i simply can not remain that close to very bad kharma!

virgins yes
dogs no
virgin dogs NO

I am not sure I can get vise grips up and in there, I am talking about the upper connections. I do have some bigger hammers to try so that is where I will start...

you have neglected answering the issue of farting in elevators, and by this action i am taking refusal to disclose as admition of guilt.

i'm very disappointed

whom effa smelt it DEALT IT! That is my story and I am sticking to it!

Zach....made me do it!

Who what now?

Zach

This morning on my way to work (Driving the 914 of course), I managed to spill a little coffee on myself and I thought:

Damit Dino! This is your fault!

I sent one off in an elevator this morning and blamed it on Dino.

Not your fault? Who else is responsible for routing inspection and maintenance on YOUR car? The tooth fairy? The government?



The Cap'n

don't think you can come in to this thread and get it back on topic ! just who do you think you are?

Well, I'm pretty sure I'm not the tooth fairy .................

The Cap'n

Then am I the egg man?

i'll be the Rooster!

I think this guy was spotted leaving your garage

And i'm glad. You might just scare the little kids to death. Mommy, there's a hippie in my room

That would be "Hippie freak". Let's use proper terminology ................

The Cap'n

So we should replace all the aging systems on our cars? I don't have that kind of cash to roll that way

If you can't afford to keep your brakes serviceable, park the car and ride the bus.

I'm confused - you have the cash to replace the front clip when you crash into something, but not to prevent it?

Yes - we must replace the safety-related systems on our cars, or park them.

This means - no driving in the rain on bald tires, no driving at any time with bad brakes, no driving with exhaust leaks that poison your passengers.

How is this even a little controversial ?

Hoses are $12.50 each...

No, I completely agree, I was less than clear, this particular car has been nothing but a money pit and unexpected failures like the post of the ball joint snapping off or the windshield sliding out onto the front bonnet. That type of thing.
I inspected the brake lines hard and soft when I replaced the calipers and bled the brakes. What I was alluding to in the title is that I had thought I did not tighten the bleeder screw down but have you ever seen a flare on a hard line just disintegrate? Because I have not! And I am talking about the union of hard line to rubber hose, the side that was untouched by removing the caliper. The flare is GONE! The brake line pulled out of the fitting.
I have owned many old cars and trucks and I can tell you I have NEVER had this kind of luck. Seriously I am thinking the universe is telling me to sell before it this car goes Christine on me...

I should be more careful of what I type... My wife is Christine!

Well getting that wedge clip off the driver's side that holds the junction in place was really hard to remove. I had two stainless hoses on the shelf, so I put them in.
The driver's side hard line is fine as are the upper hard lines, I just need to replace the caliper to flex line link.
Has anybody reused the wedge clips with the stainless steel hoses? I can't seem to get them to seat...

Sure.
Make sure you have it on the right way - two possibilities - one is right.
After that, and making sure you have any removal-induced burrs removed, just tap it in place with a hammer.

I have it with the flange up, and tapping with my large bal-peen hammer did not seat either of them.

They're "sided" i.e. not symmetrical.
One side goes toward the hose, the other goes to the tab. I do not recall and couldn't describe which is which. I recall it being pretty clear so probably you have it right.

What I recall is that the 'L' of the flange points to the hose - but I don't have super-high confidence in this recollection...

I could have sworn the flange went outboard, not top - but it's been way too many years since I looked at one. But I think I have a set of struts with the hose (stub) still attached so I'll look tonight. (I needed to pull struts in a hurry and the hoses were already slated for replacement, so it was way easier to cut them than deal with the clip and fittings...)

If it does not tap into place, additional force won't help, so there is something else wrong. If you still have the original hoses, check to see if the machined groove in the fitting is the same size. If for some reason it's too small, you will need a creative alternative. I've been through many sets of these lines and never had one with the wrong groove, but there's always a first time...

You're 100% sure they're brake hoses for a Porsche application, yes ? (Hadda ask...)

a littel bit of brake compatble grease on teh threads helps for the next time you need to remove the hoses, also works nice on bleeder screws to help make them easy to remove the next time. this is the stuff you are supposed to smear on teh piston and bore on teh outside of the sealed area to prevent sticking/corrosion. do NOT use regular grease, only use grease specifically made from brake rubber parts.


I'd say your fault, with a car this old, you got a responsibility to give it a safety inspection when parts critical to safety are of unknown age, if the hoses had cracks, you maybe could have caught it in a safety inspection. you will now replace all brake hoses. leasons learned.

I wonder did you notice any reduction in braking prior to failure?

maybe one hose was leaking for a while, (maybe no rear brkaes at first) then the front hose went and you lost the entire system?

Or did both hoses fail at the same time???


always make it a point to check the resevoir level at each gas fill up, they made you have to open the trunk to fill with gas, might as well look at the resovoir too. I tend to do that at each fill up. Since these cars dont have a level sensor in teh resevoir as new cars do, a check at each fil up can catch small ealsk before they result in total failure.

good luck, drive safe!!!

The rubber hose did NOT fail, it had cracks, but what did fail was the steel flange on the hard-line from the caliper to the rubber hose. My contention is that this was not a predictable failure. The flair on the caliper side of the hard line was fine when I replaced the caliper.
As I stated earlier in this and many other threads, this car just has oddball crap failures.
To me it is not worth a complete 'frame off' style restoration to just have a driver grade car.
Have you all replaced all of the brake lines from stem to stern? The master cylinder? Had all four caliper rebuilt? New proportioning valve?
I mean give me a break here (pun intended). I am diligent at the safety and soundness stuff, replaced fuel lines, new tyres, better lights, ect. but to have the flair end of a hard line fail without warning is odd. That is what I was referring to as 'not my fault'

This is on the inner fender wall iat the rear of the car. The clip was in the same orientation before. The new hoses have a narrower groove than the OEM version and yes, these are for a 914

If the hoses don't fit the car they are sold for (i.e. the grooves are too small) they're defective...

Which is not to say that we've never had to make something fit anyway...

So - you either have the grooves remachined bigger, or you thin the clip to fit.
Or - you get hoses that fit out of the box...

Keep at it Dino, you'll get there. I can't even count the number of times I purschased a new part that didn't fit an array of cars over the years.

Ain't it a beeotch! The lines fit the front and I bought them as a set of four... I too have parts that were supposed to fit that are now sitting on my shelf o parts as well!

Just to chime in and get this thread back on point.
You should always replace the rubber lines on a 40 year old cars brakes as one of the first things to do.
Either they will crack and break, or they are closing up.
Whichever the case may be...still sounds like it was your fault and that really is the most important part of the thread...

Well, pretty much everything's Dino's fault.

That is a good point and good reminder to anyone who drives any old anything. Rubber dries out, seals leak, hoses burst, tires can fail etc.

I can't even count anymore the times I pulled trim off a 914 windshield and the windshield lifted right out.

Scary.

Just doing my part to get the thread back on track and stop the hijacking that was going on...

Or in my case slid out... and AGAIN, yes the rubber hose was old and possibly OEM and I did have the replacements on the shelf, but the FAILURE was of the flair on the HARD line which almost never happens...
Running out of chicken at your bbq was as much Shane's fault as mine! It was good.

hyjack... hey Dino.... do you remember Alphy's sister?

Are you using her as proof that future children wont be mongoloids, too?

and yeah, I might have to take some blame on how mad Alphy got later on...

we were kinda cyber bullying him..... no thats wrong... we just let him dig his holes very deep!

where is that thread?

he got so wound up, kinda like a five year old.