[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
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