davew Posted March 4, 2003 Posted March 4, 2003 Has anyone used flexible braided brake pipes for the whole brake installation rather than the Westfield supplied copper ones. I have seen this in the latest Which Kit Mag on the Ultima build and I think it would be a much neater installation and easier to change to at this point of my build than later on. Any good/cheap suppliers and prices would be helpfull Quote
Nick M Posted March 4, 2003 Posted March 4, 2003 Yep, and it's *much* easier to do than messing about with copper brake pipes !! Think Automotive are where I got most of my parts from, along with a couple of bits from Goodridge. I'd estimate around GBP150 to do the complete car (bear in mind I had to make up new braided hoses to connect to the calipers which you probably already have in the kit, and I also had a brake bias valve in the system which needed a couple of fittings so you might save some pennies there). You do need to think about the sequence of fitting the hoses and what fittings need to go on either end because you can't twist them. You also need to fit some of the hose fittings in situ which can sometimes be a bit fiddly, though not impossible. I did my whole car in around 2 days - measuring, cutting hose to length, fitting the hose ends, installing it on the car, etc. Quote
hilux Posted March 4, 2003 Posted March 4, 2003 IMO braided hoses allow a degree of `swelling` between hose and braid reducing feel/actuation. Surely a rigid pipe for as long a length as possible will give better feel/actuation with the flexible bits as short as poss to allow for movement or vibration for steering and suspension. I could be wrong of course as I am sure I`ll be told. Quote
Glen_I Posted March 4, 2003 Posted March 4, 2003 I am going to replace all my brake pipes with braided hose but be carefull on whet ends you use if you have to go for SVA section 16.4, "Compression joints of the type using separate ferrules are not considered suitable for joints on hydraulic brake lines" i know you can get brake fittings which are reusable, and you just replace the olive each time...not good! I have been told to go to Think Automotive as well. Quote
Nick M Posted March 4, 2003 Posted March 4, 2003 Well not in my experience.... If you use a decent quality teflon hose then swelling is, if it exists at all, minimal. I use the AP master cylinder with my Wilwood 4 pots (the AP cylinder was needed because the pedal travel with the Wilwoods increased, not because of the hose) and I have an absolutely solid brake pedal. There's certainly no sponginess and no lack of feel, although that's aided by the pads I use - some can feel very wooden, e.g. EBC Red Stuff pads. Quote
Nick M Posted March 4, 2003 Posted March 4, 2003 Glen, I think they may be talking about swaged fittings rather than the re-useable ones with the olives that are fitted to pretty much every Westfield that's gone through SVA. Quote
Mike H Posted March 6, 2003 Posted March 6, 2003 I was planning on doing this on my build, with just the solid pipe going from font to back. That's already installed in the tunnel. Based on Nick's comments/experience I may even change that to braided too. Davew saved me the trouble of asking the same question Mike Quote
Mike H Posted March 7, 2003 Posted March 7, 2003 Looking at this again, I'm not so sure, I think it is reuseable fittings (ie olives) that are referred to in the SVA manual. Westfield issue hoses are swaged - mine are anyway - there's a tubular collar squashed (swaged?) at each fitting. Has anyone had their car SVA'd with reuseable fittings? Might just ring Mr SVA first. cheers Mike Quote
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.