Brake Pipe Help

[jasoncmor]

Hi all.

Im trying to replace my rear brake lines, using cupro nickel brake pipe / conifer.
I've got a fairly decent flaring tool which produces really good flares, but I'm having problems with the brake unions.
If I start to screw the male and female connector together, they screw up fine, as soon as the 2 flares touch and there is resistance in the unions, they tighten up to a certain extent but do not form a good seal, if I then tighten a little more, it seems the threads start to cross thread and then the male union ends up at an angle.

Am I doing something wrong or am I supposed to use a certain type of union with conifer pipe?

Many thanks

[b2hbm]

Dumb question time - are you sure you've got the correctly matching unions ? I have a vague memory that you can physically screw the metric/imperial ones together but the thread feels very loose if you move it about before it's tightened up.

As for copper/Kunifer, I just use normal unions as for standard steel pipe, either metric or imperial threading depending on the car.

Brian

[jasoncmor]

Thanks for your help.
Im assuming the connectors match, I bought them from the same seller, I have screwed them together and the male is loose with in the female.
They were very cheap, £1.89 for 10, off ebay, and that included postage, my own fault if they are rubbish.
I am going to purchase some better ones and see what happens.

Cheers, Jason

[stevieturbo]

Maybe post some pictures, but most brake fittings are fairly cheap anyway, and straightforward.

Maybe just making the wrong flare or something ? Or maybe the tool isnt producing good flares.

[jasoncmor]

I have just bought some new fittings and i'll see what happens.
The flaring tools I am using...

http://www.drapertools.com/en/awards/award_winners...

I am using the SAE version for the double flare and the Din version for the single flare.

[jasoncmor]

The problem I believe is with the male fittings.
I can make a double flare and attach it to my new braided brake hoses, and it forms a perfect fit.

[b2hbm]

Although my kit isn't labelled as Draper, it looks identical to what you've shown. I've never had a problem making flares with it, it's been one of the most consistent/reliable tools I've had. If the male/female fittings feel loose when screwed together then I'd check you have metric/metric or imperial/imperial threads, was it quoted in the original advert ? Otherwise there's no reason not to buy off Ebay sellers, I did !

[tr7v8]

Sounds like you could be using short male unions rather than long ones. I did this a while ago on a very difficult to access ABS pipe. Cue lots of swearing!

[jasoncmor]

Thanks for all your replies

I've double checked the ad on eBay, and the male fittings I bought aren't even in the ad. The ad had about 20 options and you chose what you wanted, so definitely looking like the adapters aren't compatible with each other.
I bought some proper fittings now some hopefully they will do the job.

Cheers.