72 124 spider pre-bent brake lines?

[Iansenn]

Sorry if this is a repeating topic, didn't see it after some looking. I picked up my 124 Spider a few months back. After flushing all of the fluids and putting all fresh stuff in, I fired it up and it runs great! Now the downside, I was going through everything making sure it all operated as it should. After a few pumps of the brake pedal, I lost all pressure and had a nice little puddle form on the ground about halfway back. To be on the safe side, I figure I'll just go with all new brake lines. I'm not opposed to bending my own lines but for convenience sake, I'd like to track down some pre-bent lines. Anyone have any past experience with this that could help me figure out the best way to approach this? Thanks in advance!

[18Fiatsandcounting]

Both VickAuto (sponsor of this forum) and Auto Ricambi sell "pre-made" brake lines with the nuts on the end. However, it looks like they come all coiled up (presumably for ease of shipping) and then you have to straighten them out yourself.

But first, I have a question: Where is the fluid leaking from? From a metal line, or from something like the rubber brake hose that connects the end of the rear brake line and the T-connector on top of the rear axle? Or from the T-connector itself? These are sort of in the middle of the car, although towards the rear.

-Bryan

[axelbaker]

I am actually in the middle of basically the same operation right now. I have just re-run all my rear hard lines. I left my fronts intact.

I went with the cupronickel lines from Vick's as i never ever ever ever want do do this again. They are much easier to bend than steel, just as strong, and are rust proof. I found the most of the lines to be slightly longer than original allowing some extra wiggle room. I neglected to measure the long front to rear line. I cam up a tiny bit short on that one. More on that below.

The lines on the rear axle are easy. Remove them and bend the new ones to match.

The line from the master cylinder to the rear end is a mile long with most of the important bends near the ends. It lives in the transmission tunnel. I couldn't see a way to get a pre-bent line in (or out). I ended up cutting my original to remove it so I had a pattern for bending. I opted to bend the front end first and feed it through mostly straight from front to back and form it in place.
When I got to the end I was about 6" short and had to work some material from the front to the back. If I had to do it again, I might try to skip the pre-bending and just run it from the master cylinder to the brake compensator then go back and do my final bending.

In all I spent about 8 hours running my rear lines. 4 on the rear axle lines 4 on the line in the tunnel.

Now if I could just get the @#%^ bubble out of where ever it's hiding I would be happy.