Went around a blind turn with a sudden stop light. Pressed the brakes hard. Brake pedal goes soft. Brake warning light on dash. Brake fluid under the driver's side rear door. Brakes still worked since only half the system seemed affected. Got home driving 30mph with hazards on. Second time I've busted a rusty brake line. At this point, you might as well replace all your brake lines. They will bust if you brake hard. I will limp it to a shop this week.

 

Yeah they get brittle after that much time. Lucky you are okay. You can buy all the lines already made and bent for about $100, depending on your Jeep model. Then you just have to figure out how to install them, or just give them to your mechanic to install.

 

In my opinion, don't waste your money on stainless lines because they are a bear to work with and nickle-copper is so much cheaper and easier to work with. I blew the main pipe from the master to the rear axle, bought 2 readymade sections and joined them together with a coupling under the driver's door. Done! That stuff bends very nicely around a socket or something hard and doesn't split or kink. It flares very easily too if you have to fit it to an ABS unit.

 

I replaced all of mine except for the rear ones as they looked like they have already been replaced and looked good. Since I bought a whole kit and got the rears figure after I get my garage built and lift put in may go ahead and do those also before I loose the spare part! Dave is correct with the stainless they are a bear to work with, Mine came pre-bent but they failed to make the factory bends verses the shipping bends so the ling one to passenger fronts I had a issue with the bends.

 

Where can I buy pre-bent brake lines?
How many separate brake lines are there on the XJ ?
I want to replace them all.

 

I got mine from Amazon Dorman 919-236 per the picture looks like 8 pieces in this kit but does not include the soft lines.

 

This looks like a bargain, but it's going to get expensive if I tell a shop to replace all of them..
In reality, do ALL brake lines needs replacing, or just certain exposed ones?

 

I just replaced all mine with stainless, from Inline Tube. The line that runs along the firewall is a 2-piece setup. It includes the Z shaped line at the master cylinder, which is the factory setup. The line that runs front to back, under the vehicle, is a 1-piece. If you buy a kit that is setup the same, the easiest way i found to snake the long line under the vehicle in, was from the engine bay as the bends that run up the firewall get hung up on eveyrthing. The only hurdles were the steering shaft, transmission crossmember, and the equalizer for the parking brake (take the bolts out and let it hang, watch your head). For the lines along the firewall, i removed the vacuum lines. I had to remove the EVAP canister and bracket for the passenger side. It was quite a dance getting it out of there, btw. You may have to bend the line a bit to get it thru the inner fender. If the rubber grommet is still there, it will probably pop out. If you can, reuse it. Its there to keep the line from rubbing the inner fender. Same story with the driver side. There isnt much room to swing a wrench with the intake manifold and steering rack in there, and i had to flip the wrench over a couple times to get a good swing. Also, unbolt the caliper hose bracket from the frame rail. Thread the brake line into the hose, then bolt that bracket back onto the framerail. Some tweaking of the lines may be needed for some of them so they seat, and thread. Start them by hand so you dont strip them. If they dont start by hand, tweak the line. Fine adjustaments. Snug the fittings. Dont get carried away or you can split the line. I stripped the threads in a wheel cylinder once doing that, somehow. Live and learn.

Not all kits are the same so you may have to get creative with the install. Some use a 1-piece line along the firewall (this is the factory setup). The line that runs front to back in some kits is a 2-piece, with the Z-saped line at the master cylinder being part of that line. There are kits in stainless, and regular steel. If you want to make your own using regular steel or Nicopp, a standard flaring tool will do. But if you want to flare stainless, you will need one of those $200 flaring tools you use in a vice. The other tools dont have the leverage.

I bought a kit the other year from Fine Lines, but never used it. The lines are quality, but the line for the passenger side front is nowhere near correct for a 97-01, which is what it was listed for. Every line ive seen for that side have been bent the same, too.

 

Just recently blew a line on mine then proceeded to replace the whole system with Nicopp line. Stuff is very nice to work with. The line that runs to the front passenger caliper is quite the bear to do!

 

When I did my rear brake job on my '00 I replaced all those lines with the Nicopp stuff too. The only line I did not replace was the short one from the portioning valve to the long rear line.
I used an adapter there.
Did the front passenger on a '96 I used to own. Even using a union and 2 sections of line it was a pain. Can only imagine what trying to do it with on line would be like.
Front lines are still in pretty good shape so I figure I would leave them alone for the time being. The long rear line was bad. Ones going to the drums from the hose were still OK.
But since I was doing a complete, and I mean complete, rear brake job said screw it and replaced those lines too.

 

I can only think of two reasons to use stainless:

1. You got a steal of a deal on a complete kit of pre-bent lines. (I did last year. It was a close-out and I needed the full set, so....)
2. You are building a show piece and you want the look of polished stainless steel. Of course, this assumes that you are going to take the time to polish every inch.

NiCopp is more corrosion resistant and FAR easier to work with. You are crazy or uninformed if you are rolling your own with stainless.

 

When I changed the front passenger line, I used two nickel copper, ready made lines from AdvanceAuto. One was a 40 inch and the other 50 inch. The toughest part was fishing the lines around everything. I tried doing the bends before hand but quickly realized it is better to run the line straight, do wide, sweeping bends to get it into position. Once you have it in place, then you can do the tighter bends by hand. With nickel copper, it is possible to bend the lines by hand to get them to fit around where they have to go. Just make sure the line is not rubbing on hard metal. I also covered the sections that are close to other metal parts with some rubber hose. Just in case.

For the front passenger line, I measured 91 inches, but because of my long sweeping bends made by hand, I think two 40 inch lines would have been better. But I wasn't about to through away a perfectly good line just because it was a little long. So I just looped the extra length it a bit.

I hadn't realized how hot those lines get coming off the proportioning valve until I put the IR gun on them. It read about 200 degrees. And this was in a normal day of around 60 degrees. I imagine in a hot day it goes up more. It makes sense though, being the exhaust manifold is right there.

 

Crazy? Arent we all?

 

Well, I think ya got me there!

 

You forgot number 3! Your going have to guess what that one is though...lol