Brakeline retailers?

pollymay, Feb 21, 9:59am
I need some steel brakeline for my rx7 so I can install a brake balance valve beside the drivers seat, it's dangerously front biased. What kindaprice does it run and who retails it! I can use copper but it's pricey and I just want run of the mill steel line. I know a place that sells the fittings and I have a double flaring tool.

I guess I could also find some line off one of my bodyshells and use that but some fresh stuff would be nice.
intrade, Feb 21, 10:08am
brake lines are easy made up by places who do brakes usually. I got some made up at lambarts brake and clutch whangarei. 20$ for 1,5 meter lenght with 2 nipple they cloned the old line that was crushed from a accident.
afer_daily, Feb 21, 1:08pm
try auto stop or bnt . ive got auto stop doing a line from the clutch master cyc down to the clutch slave cyc / new line new fitting either end plus all the right bends for under $ 50 .
gunhand, Feb 21, 1:16pm
repco.
sr2, Feb 21, 1:51pm
Just a reminder (apologies if I??
saki, Feb 21, 2:56pm
Thak you SR maybe the OP should be looking for the cause remember 70 % f 30 % r you have a prob if you have more bias to the rear thats when you will need a proportioning valve
pollymay, Feb 21, 6:46pm
It's a racecar so don't need approval. RX7 with 4pot alloy front brakes and single pot rears. I need to install it cause I have no idea where my balance SHOULD stand or if the rears can handle the car. It has a V8 set right back into the firewall so the weight has shift back quite a way plus it's an auto with a shift kit so has near no engine brakes on overrun.

Need to mess round to see where I stand with the brakes. There used to be a good place that did my stuff cheap but they went bust so have to switch tactics. I have the fittings I need minus 2 which I can buy. The car is a friggin handful as it is without bad brakes.
socram, Feb 21, 8:29pm
I am amazed that the UK still seems to allow copper brake lines. For once, NZ seems ahead of the play in terms of safety, but I wonder what the failure rate is of hardened copper pipes! Is it one of those 1 ina million or is it a real danger!
sr2, Feb 21, 8:53pm
I didn't realize copper was still allowed in England. 30-40 years ago in NZ, non OEM copper brake lines were quite common; I don't recall us having any significant problem with them.
clark20, Feb 21, 8:58pm
Price up a double master cylinder set up and balance bar if it is a race car, much better solution
pollymay, Feb 21, 9:05pm
Think bottom feeder racecar. My main racecar I run at speedways and dirt tracks is a POS mr2 I got for $300 7 years ago. I have no idea why it still runs.
pollymay, Feb 21, 9:10pm
I guess but I'm at the bottom end of the market. If I was going to do this stuff right then I'd of run better lines and a master cylinder that gave the right pedal feel. I'm really after a cheapish solution to the horrid brakes. It's not going to be competitive, too heavy and suspension is all wrong. At the moment the brakes are so horrid I crashed into my project mr2 at 3mph cause the rear brakes did nothing and the fronts locked but the V8 had enough torque at idle to push the car very slowly into my other car in the saddest accident in world history. I could of got out and walked around to move the car out of the other way if I had thought about it.
sr2, Feb 21, 9:19pm
Sounds like a great project, having had the pleasure of running some pretty high horsepower under the windscreen of a few race cars I can sympathize with your need to get the braking under control!
Rather than ???messing around to see where you stand with the brakes??? my suggestion would be to perform accurate diagnoses of your braking problems and then design a solution,it??
pollymay, Feb 21, 10:12pm
It's just a speedway car. It acts like a pig under brakes, fronts pinch and I land up understeering way out wide where I mash the gas to rooster tail it into oversteer which is impressive but scary as hell out by those concrete walls. It's an LSD and the suspension is stockish with adjustable dampning front and rear.

The basic story on the car was it was built about 4 or 5 years ago from a shell and spare motor. Had some go but overheated and handled badly. Got parked and for 3 years it sat where the motor filled with water, life turned to shit etc etc. Got some time lately and got it going after new ignition, carb and sparkplugs. Moved the radiator to the rear, big V8 touring car radiator, could cool off a slut on heat, after getting it running like a champ the trans blew and it sat another 6 months before I fixed that but it runs nice now. The brakes are still iffy though, I'm now debating if I should pull them off and do a seal kit to make sure the rears are perfect before trying to push and balance around, rotors have been skimmed. Brakes are HUGE just they are all to hell with their proportioning. Rear pads are pretty soft so doesn't seem to be pads.

BTW this car is cursed, for serious. It has backfired through the carb with the filter off and tried to set me on fire numerous times, when we first got it going I was standing next to the exhaust and it set my pants on fire from unburnt fuel igniting out the side and it once was idling on jackstands in neutral and it managed to with no one touching it select reverse and kick the jackstands out and reverse into the shed. Lots of other stuff, it is just an evil SOB.
socram, Feb 22, 7:03am
If the car is that cursed, I'd move on.!

I would have thought that simply checking and overhauling the brakes would be step 1, making sure everything works as it should.Only then would I be worrying about modifications.

My project car has had a fortune spent on the brake system and it hasn't even been on the road (legally) yet, but the fabricator who sorted the system overlooked the fact that the rear left brake sticks on, when using the handbrake.It won't be going anywhere fast until that is fixed.The only Japanese parts on the whole car are those Skyline calipers (new Peugeot rear discs and Falcon front discs.)
pollymay, Feb 22, 8:58am
Well they appear to work fine and the piston moves free when I checked them last. My big issue is the torque this thing makes through the rear, that was kinda the point of making it but it's a pain in the ass to haul up. We use just use brake balance valves in the rally cars and haven't had issues, it's worked well for them,
pollymay, Mar 3, 8:45pm
I messed with some proportioning valves and got it better but not perfect so I'm going to run it this weekend anyway I hope and see if the cooling and other systems hold up to being beat on. The rear pistons in the calipers were perfect and so were the seals, after I got some better bias I put it on jackstands and tried to hold the V8 back on the brakes, they slowed it a little but I was kinda disappointed they didn't seem to be clamping hard until they quickly started smoking from heat, torquey old hunk of iron. Finally fixed a transmission leak it had for ages that dumped all the oil in a week and it starts like clockwork even with the choke removed. 2 throttle pumps, kick the starter and off it goes.

This will piss the rotor boys off ;)
sr2, Mar 3, 8:52pm
Good luck with the weekend racing, let us know how you do.
pollymay, Mar 3, 9:10pm
You have no idea how much I want it to just work. I'm reluctant to change proportioning too much because I'm not running hoosiers yet and when I do I'll stagger it and I also may change transmissions cause I own a powerglide with all the goodies just it's in someone elses garage and has been for about 20 years which is about as old as I am lol.

It just needs to prove it's a reliable car mechanically, keeping the 327 cool is a huge task. The radiator is out of dean perkin's old touring car, the motor I think used to be in a rambler 770 that rolled years back I believe. We put it in a good rambler 770 and while it was being worked on in the shop a moron who shall remain nameless lifted a 6 disc plough over it and the chain let go dumping it on the back of the car and it's been out of commission for about 15 years now. Pulled the motor and put it in an old rx7 shell after putting some small chamber heads off a jetboat on it. Has plenty of go and revs out but used to get hot, hoping to fix that with my new setup. Too much to do, too little spare cash.
saki, Mar 4, 2:54pm
I think you should talk to Dean Perkins about your handling issues spend a bit of dosh on the front end, bigger calipers on the rear or better still get your self a proper pedal box with bias adjuster and twin master cylinder arrangement
pollymay, Mar 4, 5:15pm
I'm not spending decent money on a car that isn't competitive and is just a bit of fun really. I want "good enough" brakes so I can sort out everything else, I dunno if I can even keep it cool, if the motor is still good or what tyres I can fit etc etc. I need a start point but the brakes were SO BAD as they were that I refused to track it, just touch the pedal and they would lock up front.

I couldn't even park it outside without problems on the grass and metal driveway due to how pathetic the bias was and how the low stall converter just pushed it no matter what.
pollymay, Jun 27, 9:55pm
Rainout, at least I think it was! At any rate rain + a few 100 horsepower = bad things so I didn't even get as far as putting it on the trailer before deciding against racing it.

Wasn't even game to take out my little mr2 cause of the broken waterpump and other issues. Does give me time to put a hotter cam in it with my spare time though :D