Just been practicing first ever brake flaring. Spotted the bit in the instructions that talks about applying the supplied grease. Can't find this stuff so I did a test with some LM grease.
Voila! All of a sudden decent flares that aren't 'twisted'!

Anyway, when it comes to the real thing should I be using a special grease or will anything do? Presumably it may get into the tubes so it has to be something special?

Cheers,

James

I don't know about this, but brake fluid might work as a light lubricant. wouldn't matter much if it got into brake pipes..

by the way, I finally reassembled one sierra rear caliper tonight. ARGH. what a bitch. I think you had the right idea in getting recon ones.

Right, well, done a few more and not sure if it's practice, or technique or that I'm now using copper slip as the grease but they look pretty good now.

Could someone just re-assure me that if there's any copper slip residue left in the pipe (yes, I know I'll be bleeding the brakes) that's it's not going to mess things up.

Not sure how it could (maybe copper slip is well known for breaking down brake fluid compounds or something) but as it's the brakes I want to be on the safe side!

Anyone know?

Thanks!

James

No-one any opinions on using copper slip?

Oh well, copper slip it is then! If the brakes fail and I die I know who to blame then!

Cheers,

James

copper slip is what's used in bits of sierra brakes when reassembling.. there are rubber seals between those parts and the brake fluid parts, so maybe it means nothing, but it kind of implies that it's not a lethal thing to possibly get mixed up with brake fluid.

did you try using brake fluid to do the flares, out of interest?

[Edited on 10/12/03 by blueshift]

Coppaslip contains loads of lovely little copper particles,if they get into the outer diameter of the bellows type seals in your master cylinder,the seals will eventually start to pass.
It is not good to have any kind of contaminant on your braking system! I have learned this through bitter experience in my job.
Flush your braking system with a nice cheap fluid of the same type you have been using and change them seals!
P.S. Why not use silicone grease to lube when you flare your brake pipes, it's fairly inert and shouldn't cause any problems when it's in your system(braking that is!)

Sorry to hijack the thread, but I've been looking to buy a flaring tool and wanted people's recommendations.
I've looked at the previous threads and people have mentioned the following:

http://www.machinemart.co.uk/product.asp?p=040215399&r=2076&g=111

http://www.screwfix.com/app/sfd/sea/searchresults.jsp?_dyncharset=UTF-8&pn=1&pd=1&pi=1&cn=1&cd=1&q=flaring&n=&x=5& %20y=11

Can anyone make some recomendations of which to go for (or other alternatives)
Thanks
Pete

ps sorry can't get the second one to link, but if you paste it in it'll work!

[Edited on 11/12/03 by PeetBee]

Their both the same things... the screwfix and machine mart items are the same. I've got that one, works ok.

I used the machine mart one

WITHOUT ANY LUBRICANT

and all my flares were fluid tight first time.

one of the little sucesses of last saturday.

just gotta get my drive shaft modded and I have a totally drivable rolling chassis.

atb

steve

I sued the one from machine mart,i found a bit of LM grease helped it along nicely.

Its not the best flaring tool in the world but for the price i dont think you will beat it.

I even got it on a VAT free trading day,which is nice.

Thanks for the advice, off to machine mart I go

Or

Dear Santa........

If you want to spend a little more and get the best flares you could ever hope for, get the Sykes Pickevant jobbie

Forgot to mention I also have a Bluepoint (Snapon) on the car flare tool - its cr@p, don't bother

small squirt of WD40 on the end of the pipe works well and you can wash the residue off easily with meths once you have made the flare (dip the finished pipe in the meths bottle !!!)

still, as I said, I used no lube at all and it still worked.

no chance at all of fluid contamination there (not that there is anyway)

biggest clue to getting good ends is to chamfer the outside with a file, and use a proper cutter to get the ends square, which costs about 3 quid


atb

steve

Ok am back from machine mart with nice flaring tool and cutter, so I'll go off to the motor factors in the week to get a roll of pipe.
Thanks guys.

I use petroleum jelly for most jobs like these.
Pretty innocuous and easily wiped off!

whats the name for the things you put on the ends? nipples? just dont wanna go into the motor shop and look like a tit (no pun intended)!

M10 brake fittings ?

Just make sure you buy ones the right length. Too long and you won't get enough threads in the MCyl to get them tight. (Think this has been mentioned before somewhere on here).

[Edited on 13/12/03 by givemethebighammer]

The proper name is unions Joel. Don't forget to put them on before you make the flare and check which way round they are facing. Not that I ever got it wrong but it can happen.

yours, Pete.

cheers chaps...