Steel brake lines to calipers

[ra_28]

I changed my drum brakes to disc so I bent up new brake lines to suit. My concerns are, is there movement in calipers? enough that I should be worried about fatigue and cracking in the pipes.

Alex

[BigWorm]

No........

[CrUZida]

The caliper itself will never move as Bigperm states, but obviously the whole axle will, so you will have to have a rubber section somewhere.

[ra_28]

Sweet that makes me feel better. Just I've seen most other people have run flex line in there brake mods.

Alex

[Sam_Q]

I was warned not to do this by the brake place, so I didn't but I have always questioned it

The caliper will only move as the disk wears down which is a minisule amount. But I do have to say that it has made my life so much easier when I work the diff, I can remove the disks without undoing my lines which is very handy if you dont like bleeding brakes like me

[BigWorm]

The caliper wont move as the disc wears down, as it's bolted to the axle housing. The point about making removal of the caliper easier is a good one though....

[Sam_Q]

correct me if I am wrong here but the outer assembly of the caliper is bolted however the piston part of the assembly moves along a slide to facilitate it touching the disk throught its life.

Edit: I just ran down and check and it does move

[BigWorm]

Ah, sliding calipers, I wasn't thinking of that.

[30psi 4agte]

If they are sliding calipers like the above mentioned you will need a flexible line for sure .

[Sam_Q]

come to think of it even if it only ever moves with the disk as it wears it has the movement of going backwards to take up slack ever time the peddle is pressed. Even if its a total of 1mm or something it will slowly harden those lines, and you really dont want that to happen

[ra_28]

Thats what I thought. So I've changed the setup and now running flexable lines.

Alex

[CrUZida]

Even if its a total of 1mm or something it will slowly harden those lines, and you really dont want that to happen

Can you elaborate on this? I dont get what you mean?

[Sam_Q]

what I mean is that the caliper between having your foot off and then onto your brakes might move 1mm, this over time would be moving your lines. Moving any type of normal metal back and forth will harden it and it can get only so hard before it won't want to snap anymore, ie: it will rip.

[CrUZida]

Surely thats just a few mm?

Wouldn't it move more from just the vibrations caused by driving?

[Sam_Q]

Vibrations won't try and bend the line into more of a L shape and back by a tiny amount. But it really is hard to say. Look to be honest I think it's unlikely that anything will happen, however I don't think it's worth the chance of something going wrong. Also if there was nothing in it the car builders wouldnt fit flex lines OEM.