Hi! I was curious if anyone here has had to replace a portion of the metal brake line to the rear brakes that runs under the bed... one of the two lines is leaking in my truck and it is making the braking a little uneven (I am worried about snow driving with bad breaking) It looks like I can get staight unbent brake line from the parts store, but I wasn't sure what is the best method for replacing this line. What do you think?

 

Depends on how much you want to spend...I'm pretty sure you can get pre-bent pieces from Toyota, but I'm guessing it'll be pretty expensive. From what I've seen online, people who bend their own, do something along the lines of filling the straight lines with sand, then carefully bending it that way, so it doesn't crease/kink/break. I would guess you'd want to just take the old piece out & use it as a template. Can't remember where I saw that now...but it may have been on this site in the newbie tech or general vehicle section (the sand thing).

I don't know anything about the braided brake lines..does anyone know if you can use those for whole long stretches of brake line? Cause that would be easy, since it's so flexible.

 

Couldn't find the thread I was thinking of but it looks like maybe they aren't too expensive from Toyota? Check it out first..and if you buy straight lines, as long as you aren't putting too much of a bend in, and you're careful, you shouldn't break anything. I swear I saw something about sand in there but you'd sure want to be absolutely sure you got it all out before installing...don't want that stuff in your brake system. If you search you'll find a few posts/threads on replacing rear brake lines.

 

Uhhg... rear brake lines. If you have the money,time and patience, go with the factory lines. I'm not sure what the layout is on your 83, but the rears on my truck and runner both went around and above the fuel tank, making removal/installation a pain since dropping the tank is the most correct way to do it. I took my truck to a garage, and they just went with the generic 3/16" straight line beside the tank which saved them alot of work. The brake-lines are very straight forward, its the installation and bending that gets me frustrated, but it can save alot of money.

 

Cool. Just called the dealer, they can get the brake lines pre-bent, and they weren't pricy at all, $34. Lucky, I think this line will be really easy to get to, If I remember right it was all visible (not behind the gas tank).

 

Very cool