I'm looking at doing a whole car with braided line, but have only ever done it the standard way with copper/flaring tool.

I'm pretty sure it's legal, but the issue lies with fixtures and fittings.

I have a feeling you could use compression joints, but then i'd still need to plumb into m/c

Anyone got any experience and/or pointers they could offer up?

Thanks

yep, get russbost to make all your lines up for you

you can get straight or angled fittings to screw into the calipers, banjo fittings on the master cylinder etc, my whole system is done with only 5 pipes. 1 pipe to the back axle, T piece on the axle, and a pipe to each caliper, and the front is 2 hoses out the M/C, 1 going to each caliper.

i've got integral master cylinders, but if you wanted seperate resvoirs, they're not pressurised, so you just need a hose connection between the res and M/C think you can buy it from motor factors, and just secure with hose clips

[Edited on 25/1/11 by blakep82]

I did my whole system in it, I've mounted it every 10cm anyway. I prefer it, just don't buy cheap cheap hose There were a few of the top cars at goodwood revival that had fully braided brake systems.

Fine until you get some grit in the braided hoses...

For a road car I would keep the amount of braided hose to a minimum...


Or, find some braided hose that has a plastic sleeve over the top to stop grit and water getting into the braid webbing

What are the pros/cons?

I know braided hose is good these days but i still cant imagine it helping the feel of your pedal.high pressure piston pump systems in work use a length of braided hose coiled as a cheap damper for that very reason!sure it'll be fine,but running solid brake pipes isn't exactly difficult,more than likely cheaper and would probably be easier to secure without the risk of moving chafing in my opinion.

Don't see the point, a nice straight copper pipe is hard to beat.

The brake pedal will not be as stiff as with solid pipe. I would recommend using Kunnifer (never use copper if it can be avoided) at least for lines between the master cylinder and the front & rear Tees.

I have braided all the way. Pedal seems stiff enough and it passed SVA with these. I've heard the talk about loads of additional flex, but I don't know if anyone has done a proper comparison, could easily be forum chaff.


I put transparent plastic heatshrink over it, which protects the braiding, and other things from the braiding (which tends to file away at anything).

The gotcha is that you need incorporate enough swivels in the system so that you can tighten it up (as you always seem to get the odd weeping joint with braking systems). The standard copper pipe ends can rotate relative to the pipe, but the cheapest braided are non swivel. I used banjos to the rear brakes and to the master cylinders. You can get away with 5 hoses.

Double banjo bolt on front master cylinder, run to either front wheel.
Banjo to hose to rear t-piece, run from T-piece to each rear wheel.
You can get a motorcycle banjo-bolt/pressure sensor/switch for the brake circuit, which I have on the rear master cylinder.
It seems to work fine.

Price-wise you end up with fewer joins, and the joins are quite expensive. I don't think the cost is much different to the copper/kunifer pipe method, and the whole system is a bit simpler. It saves you buying an expensive brake pipe flaring tool.


Matt

russ bosts ones are plastic coated, a choice of colours, he's got any fitting you need and all swaged properly, less joints needed, as said, swivels are easier to assemble and disassemble, whenever i've tried taking copper pipes apart, they all end up broken. and i think copper/kunifer looks cack too anyway when i did it, think it worked out cheaper than the ciopper/kunifer equivalent, once you factor in the cost of the pipe, the joints needed, and then the flexible pipes you will still need anyway...

[Edited on 25/1/11 by blakep82]

I did my entire system from m/c to calipers. 5 years on and still a rock hard pedal and easy peasy to install.
I will always do it that way now

A roll of Kunifer to do the whole car cost me under £10 and the unions were about £4. The lads at the local garage do 4x4 racing and they took the braided out and put solid back in as they were getting problems. The braided pipes moved and could be seen trying to straighten out under pressure