I am fixing the brakes on my 1997 F150... I had leaky rear wheel cylinders and Front hoses that were are showing signs of not letting the caliper release and bulging under pressure...

So easy fix right... until all the brake lines broke due to rust!

Now this in and of itself not a huge deal... except that you can't get any of the damn lines from Ford... planned obsolesence must have Henry rolling in his grave right now!

So all these lines have different size fittings on both ends, making the quick and dirty predone lines from the auto parts store a no go unless I want to use a janky adapter setup.


So does anyone make lines for these trucks????

I don't have the tools, time, or patience right now to make all new lines... HELP!!!

Well if I had a -96 truck I'd be golden... I'm guessing that we are JUST getting to the point where the 97-03 trucks are having this problem, good thing I live in the frozen salt infested tundra and I'm just a little ahead of the curve

My Ranger's got the same deal in back...

I got an adapter for one side, but I couldn't find another one, so I actually ended up using a real short (6"?) preflared piece that had the right ends on it, and then joining it to another preflared line with a union.

I'm not hugely proud of how it came out, but it's held together for a few years now without any problems. I didn't dare flare the lines myself because I didn't have anybody around who'd ever done it before to teach me in person...so I did what I could.

Flaring isn't hard to do. You can also use the old fittings on new line if the threads are good.

Is it safe to re-use the old fittings?

I've never had a problem if they are in good shape.

Done it many a time, they are simply nuts, it is the line that is the concern.

Cool

Except one is missing... damn.

Something I always do new or old lines is coat the line inside the nut with antisieze, it helps keep that from happening again. Might try salvage yards if you aren't willing to use the adapters to get that fitting. Trying to remember if we have the proper size nuts or not, but without having one to compare with, it becomes very difficult to find a proper replacement with all the variations that got used. I can't say if a 97 uses the 1/4 nut like the older ones, or if they went metric.