Okay...in the past I had a problem with my left front brake dragging, and a shop diagnosed it as collapsed brake hose, so they replaced it and the caliper.

Now I have the same problem with my right front brake dragging, so I went and bought a new hose and reman caliper. And I can get the hose disconnected from the caliper, but I have had no luck getting the upper end of the hose disconnected from the armored steel brake line. I've tried PB Blaster, WD-40, propane torch (but not red hot), vise grips (and I've almost rounded the nut)...each several times, but no luck, the nut won't budge. I really don't want to have to replace the long steel brake line (I don't have equipment to flare or bend, and I really don't know what I'm doing).

See attached photo taken prior to my failed efforts. (nut to the right of the bracket, on the armored line)

Any suggestions?? I'm trying to find an experienced brake mechanic who can come to my home and help with this, because I really don't want to have it towed. The thing has 180K but runs well and is a rare stick shift version.

 

pull the retainer clip and pull the line through the bracket. Then spin the brake line off the metal line.

 

Well, I had already pulled the clip off, and I now removed one supporting bracket (a few inches down the metal line), to get the line to pull further through the bracket, but no dice. I can't do anything without twisting the metal line. Will a propane torch be any good even if I keep it on for a few minutes? (I really don't want to melt the rubber line at the connection or risk the fluid lighting up.) Any other ideas?

 

Just my two cents but do you have brake line wrenches???? If not get some, they should make the job a little easier and they are nice to have on hand if you have to do this again or a Buddy does. I don't have pictures to post but if you "Google" brake line wrench on the image search you will see what I mean.

These wrenches fit the brake line nut better and usually don't round the nut.

 

Yeah, I had gone out and bought a 7/16" flare nut wrench, but I found out that I couldn't get it over the line because the armor (spring) around the line made it too thick. It would have fit it it wasn't for the armor, and I didn't want to have to undo the line (it's a pretty long line even though it's up front, and it has lots of bends).

 

Solution....I got the brilliant idea (way too late for me to be brilliant) of putting vice grips (yeah, cheap chinese ones) on the nut, leaning them against the body of the van to prevent twisting of the hard line, and put a crescent wrench on the block connection of the soft line, pulled up pretty forcefully on the crescent, and voila....the nut released. At the same time I had to push the whole connection to the left so that the block was free from the "notch" in the bracket that supported the connection. And, of course, I had removed the clip. The flared end of the hard line needed some cleaning but otherwise is in good shape.