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front flexible brakehose
Dave J - 10/5/05 at 03:35 PM

Hi all,

On full lock I find that the flexible brake pipes when 'bunched' touch the lower wishbone, obviously on opposite lock they are fine being straight. Would this be a problem with the SVA?

I've tried swivelling the banjo fitting to a different position, this just tends to push the pipe towards the wheel.

I can't see the pipe chaffing , as the wishbones are tubular and the pipes move with the suspension anyway.

Any thoughts on this??

Many thanks.

Dave


Fifer - 10/5/05 at 04:10 PM

definate fail,
You would have to get them to be free of contact with anything


Hellfire - 10/5/05 at 04:28 PM

We found twisting them to achieve a slight bend when in straight ahead. They then curl up when needing to reduce.


Northy - 10/5/05 at 05:31 PM

Or limit the steering lock


clbarclay - 10/5/05 at 05:53 PM

You could do like brake lines on the front of a cortina. From the caliper is a length of ridged line to a braket on the upright, where it then turns to flex brake line. The braket means the flex line can be positioned better to help avoid chafing.


DorsetStrider - 10/5/05 at 06:08 PM

Cant you just like drive in straight lines?


NS Dev - 10/5/05 at 08:37 PM

again, questioning the wisdom of SVA advice, why can't they touch anything!?????

Where is the definition between "touch" and "mounted to"????????????????

Numerous production cars have the flexi lines clipped to wishbones etc!!! Surely this is "touching" but it would pass SVA, it must, it has passed type approval!!!!!!!


RazMan - 10/5/05 at 09:58 PM

A case of ' don't touch me unless you mean it?'......

.... or even 'one rule for you and one rule for me'


Rorty - 11/5/05 at 06:07 AM

You think you have problems! With 48 degrees of steering and up to 24 inches of wheel travel in my off-road cars, keeping the brake flexies out of hams way is esential.
I would have thought Mr. SVA would encourage the flexies to be clipped to the wishbones.
The way I do it is cut a 15mm length of 3/8" rubber hose (it must be the fabric braided type...plain rubber hose will eventually split).
Take a Nylon cable tie and bend it into a "U" shape and place it over the flexie, and then slide the short piece of rubber hose over the ends of the cable tie.
All you have to do then is wrap the ends of the cable tie around the wishbone and pull it tight.
The piece of hose acts as a stand-off, yet still allows the hose to flex when required.


Dave J - 11/5/05 at 10:16 AM

Thanks guys for the advice and help. I'll try some of the suggestions ( not sure about driving in a straight line, might take out a few cows and sheep on the way)

This is not going to be easy as I have alot of lock and the flexibles as short as I dare. Can't really clip to anything unless this allows the flexies to slide within the clip......is this what you mean CLBARCLAY?

If I need to limit the rack travel, what's the best way to go about it? (SVA friendly)

What a bummer!!

Cheers Guys.

Dave


clbarclay - 11/5/05 at 01:19 PM

I'm talking about having a lenght of rigid brake line from the caliper to a bracket on the upright, then the flexible pipe from the bracket to the rigid brake lines on the chassis.

The photo below is of the ford example that came with my cortina uprights. Rescued attachment DSCF0126 small.JPG
Rescued attachment DSCF0126 small.JPG


Dave J - 11/5/05 at 02:14 PM

Thanks for the picture, that's much clearer now. I may be able to do something similar (fingers crossed).

I had a word with my local friendly SVA centre about this problem. They say it is a common problem. They pointed out that VW (Golf/passat?) use a rubber donut on their flexible pipes that come into contact with bodywork to get round this and that is acceptable. The donut has to be permanent and not slide on the brake pipe. The discussion was very guarded from their point of view and any solution is open to interpretation, however the inference seemed to be that so long as the donut protects the brake pipe and is permanent and lasts at least 10 years, that would be acceptable.

My advice would be to check with your SVA officer.

With nylon spiral wrap plus a rubber donut protecting the pipe, there is no way that would wear in 50 years let alone 10.

Incidentally, nylon spiral wrap is not accepable on its own.

Cheers and thanks,

Dave.


RoadkillUK - 11/5/05 at 05:39 PM

I did as CLBarclay has suggested.

Photo's below.





Dave J - 18/5/05 at 11:13 AM

Thanks guys, I reckon I'll try the same. The pictures really helped.

Roadkill, did you not have a problem with your flexi becoming rather close to your wheel rim when turning left on full lock?

anyway thanks again and apologies for the late response.....not been too well lately

But ok now

Cheers,

Dave.


Peteff - 18/5/05 at 12:20 PM

Mine almost touches the front wing support so I put a piece of rubber pipe round it. It passed SVA and MOT.


Mark Allanson - 18/5/05 at 08:25 PM

The pickie is a little out of date, but in my pre SVA frenzy, I have decided that my grommets in the side panels will fail the test.

I am going to replace them with electrical glands. These will clamp the now spiral wrapped flexies in position. The other advantageis that I will be able to modify the length of the flexy to make adjustments as required. Rescued attachment SVA Flexies.jpg
Rescued attachment SVA Flexies.jpg


DarrenW - 20/5/05 at 10:16 AM

quote:
Originally posted by Rorty
You think you have problems! With 48 degrees of steering and up to 24 inches of wheel travel in my off-road cars, keeping the brake flexies out of hams way is esential.
I would have thought Mr. SVA would encourage the flexies to be clipped to the wishbones.
The way I do it is cut a 15mm length of 3/8" rubber hose (it must be the fabric braided type...plain rubber hose will eventually split).
Take a Nylon cable tie and bend it into a "U" shape and place it over the flexie, and then slide the short piece of rubber hose over the ends of the cable tie.
All you have to do then is wrap the ends of the cable tie around the wishbone and pull it tight.
The piece of hose acts as a stand-off, yet still allows the hose to flex when required.


Do you have a pic?


Rorty - 20/5/05 at 01:42 PM

I don't think I have a pic of the brake flexies, but I'll have a look.


DarrenW - 20/5/05 at 02:49 PM

Ive just read your post again Rorty. I think ive sussed it now. The piece of hose will be at right angles to the wishbone that it is secured to and the brake line, creating a H-section / shape.
Has anyone done this and passed SVA?


Dave J - 24/5/05 at 09:13 AM

If I understand Rorty's description correctly, the short hose stands upright on the wishbone, the flexie is fixed to the top of the hose by the cable tie which passes through the hose and is pulled tight around the wishbone.

Iam not sure if the SVA chappie would be ok with this arrangement, as during my conversation with my local friendly SVA centre, he seemed to stipulate that so long as the remedy adheres pretty much with what a car manufacturer would do then you should be ok. He also mentioned the 10 year life expectancy.

Personally (just my opinion) and with all due respect to Rorty (he is after all only going off road with his car) I would be extremely wary about cable ties being used with any part of the braking system.

What does seem to be ok is the rubber donut idea where the donut is PERMANENTLY FIXED to the flexie in such a way that any contact with bodywork or wishbones touches the donut and not the flexie. As per VW Golf and Passat.

Cheers,

Dave.