[DeTomaso] Brake  hoses

JDeRyke at aol.com JDeRyke at aol.com
Mon Jun 23 17:09:36 EDT 2008


In a message dated 6/21/08 7:20:56 AM, asajay at asajay.com writes:

> brake hoses, stainless braided versus plain rubber hose.  What are the pros 
> and cons?
> 
Plain rubber hose works on plain street cars- for a while. Then ozone attacks 
and the hoses begin to crack like over-age tires. Performance cars need 
better hoses. IMHO what's needed is real aeroquip hoses that have teflon inners 
with braided stainless outside as a protective sleeve. Many cheap hoses are 
braided stainless over plain rubber, which gains nothing except a pretty 
appearance. Some others are teflon inside, as well, but Aeroquip is for sure and is 
rated to 3000 psi. Std power brakes will develop around 1500 psi in a panic stop. 
Some braided-stainless hoses are dash-4 while in   performance cars, dash-3 
(smaller) gives slightly faster response because of the smaller volume of fluid 
being moved around. And some otherwise good brake hoses use swedged fittings 
rather than the rebuildable Areoquip type hose ends. Swedged fittings have been 
known to fail right out of the box so do some testing with the car up on 
jackstands before driving the car. 
I also recommend using stainless fittings to hook things up rather than the 
lightweight blue or black aluminum ones. 6061-aluminum fittings save about 2 
lbs in an entire car but have no capacity to absorb hits with road debris or (in 
the rear) being stepped on while climbing in & out to work on the top of the 
engine. Instead of bending as stainless does, they crack. If you don't 
pre-flight your Pantera before each spirited drive, it's risky to use aluminum brake 
fittings. If real lightness is your desire, braided-kevlar brake hoses are 
quite a bit lighter than stainless but not nearly as bling-bling to the eye. 
When mounting braided-steel hoses, be sure the hoses are routed away from the 
wheels. The stainless braid is hard enough to re-machine Campy mags or even 
aluminum aftermarket rims. Good luck, AJ- J DeRyke


**************
Gas prices 
getting you down? Search AOL Autos for fuel-efficient used cars.
      
(http://autos.aol.com/used?ncid=aolaut00050000000007)



More information about the DeTomaso mailing list