I expect the more experienced among you will know this but, I literally just put mine together yesterday. Much easier than I thought.

I had heard that you need to drop the Master Cylinder in order to press the lines in place and in fact tried that out....as it turned out the most effective aspect of this exercise was to swab a little brake fluid seals...the feed lines dropped in place with no fuss at all.

I hope this helps someone or at the very least makes you aware its not that big a deal at all. Grant

[quote name='NS914' date='Oct 2 2016, 03:43 PM' post='2406198']
I expect the more experienced among you will know this but, I literally just put mine together yesterday. Much easier than I thought.

I had heard that you need to drop the Master Cylinder in order to press the lines in place and in fact tried that out....as it turned out the most effective aspect of this exercise was to swab a little brake fluid seals...the feed lines dropped in place with no fuss at all.

I hope this helps someone or at the very least makes you aware its not that big a deal at all. Grant

One question I did have...would it make sense to remove the hard plastic lines and go with a flexible line and attaching same to the steel line where it meets the master cyclinder....it there a kit of sorts to do the same?

It's a "huge" deal and I've done tons of them. I "highly" suspect that the flare on the metal ends that go into your master cylinder are;

a ) not seated all the way or,
b ) not even in the ends of your lines like they should be.

The best method I've found is to loosen the reservoir so you can pull the lines down and have the master cylinder removed as well. The car should be up on a lift. We use assembly lube and brute force to angle the flare into its seat at the base of the grommet. Also, everyone should make sure the distance washers are in place to ensure a leak free tight fit.

Sorry, if it's "not a big deal" I'll almost guarantee something is wrong and, this is the master hydraulic pump for your car were talking about.

Not an option for all, but as my fuel tank was out when I did this, I dropped the reservoir lines out the bottom (though some have done similar by just loosening the whole reservoir for a few inches of play., bench installed the lines and just threaded them back up when the M/C went back in. Still needed a fair mount of pressure, just from a much easier leverage point!

I took Eric's advice and I pull the fabric feed hoses lines loose from the reservoir when doing this task anymore.

Several years ago, I installed a new ATE M/C and I thought I felt the tubes seat, but for some reason, two years later I saw a puddle on the concrete under the M/C. The car had only been driven about 500 miles at that point, but I replaced it with another new M/C.

When inspecting the old one, I found that the inlet grommets had disintegrated into a goo. I cleaned it up and bought new grommets for it, but never figured out what cause them to deteriorate so badly in such a short time. I wondered if the tubes didn't fully seat and if brake fluid leaking caused the deterioration

I know brake fluid is corrosive, but one would think that the grommets for a M/C were engineered to hold up to brake fluid?

I wonder if it was the "dousing" of brake fluid? My originals still looked good when I did mine last month so much that you could still read the PN.



I think if inserted correctly, they actually contact very little fluid. The downward force keeps the hard line against the washer. There is a built in O ring on the grommet shoulder should any fluid get past the face of the grommet, and lastly the "step" cut into the grommet keeps it forced down into the M/C when it fully seats in the inlet of the M/C. I am guessing that force is was causes the hard line to "click" against the washers some folks report hearing when assembling these.

It's also easy if you leave out the metal washers. Unfortunately that would be bad.

That is one of the biggest PITA jobs in the world!! I HATE working on the brakes as brake fluid has to be one of the worst substances in the world!!

Last time I replaced a MC I ended up taking out the gas tank to get more access. Obviously didn't need to do that was the frustration level was getting kind of elevated!!

Talking about 'elevated', now that you have a lift, it should be a lot easier next time.

OT, I had to replace some fuel hoses on the Vanagon and having the 4-post lift handy was great, as I had to raise and lower the van to different elevations a few times to get a good grip on the old hoses to remove them, and to route the new hoses up and around the tranny (while being able to stand upright)

Eric
If we are missing the washers,(I am), can we buy them from you or ???

I bought the new plastic reservoir feed lines from PMB; trying to insert the steel barbed fittings into the plastic is proving to be difficult. Any suggestions?

by the way...don't heat the plastic lines; they just melt and distort.

EDIT.....I finally got the plastic lines over the barbed fittings. Just requires brute force.
Sequence (master cylinder and reservoir both removed from car):
1. After removing the barbed fittings from the MC, I slid the rubber floorboard grommets over the plastic lines
2. put the plastic lines on a workbench and used some vice grips on the metal fittings (avoiding the barbs) and "screwed" the barbs into the plastic lines until they were fully seated
3. plastic lines and barbed fittings were then fed through the frunk floor from above, metal fttings then fully seated into the MC.
4. MC bolted in place, rubber grommets seated into the frunk floor

Hope this helps someone

I too suspect the washers are in the box, and not in the master cyl.

I use two flare wrenches, and some creative levering to press the rubber grommet into the master cylinder, and it's never been what I'd call "easy".

Hello Eric....you just have to live through trying to get it to seal correctly which if it takes 4-5 hours to get it right you really understand your comment in this thread.....initial poster just be sure it is not going to come out or leak.....they are your brakes....
gg