brake pipe in a Dodge

jvandyke

jvandyke

True Classic
My son blew a brake line (hard line) on his '99 Dakota. I've never had to work on a hard line before. Apparently you take it off, bring it to a parts store and buy the stock pipe and necessary fittings, cut and flare it yourself or have them do it? I"m getting mixed feedback from inquiring at my parts stores. The little 18" or so pipe I need is $65 at the dealer!
 
Stopped at the NAPA by me yesterday, hoping they could give me something that might work when I get down there (he's an hour away). NAPA guy said there's no way, have to bring in the old line and fittings. Took line and fittings to an Autozone in Kalamazoo (where my kid goes to college), no dice, then an Advance Auto, no dice. They didn't know what they were doing (I didn't either). Finally went to NAPA and he set me up.
Apparently you get a "standard" pipe with 'standard fittings" and use adapters to mate it to whatever it connects. Worked fine.
NAPA is the place to go for people with brains.
We were almost out the door at Advance Auto when I said to my son, we probably should check both ends of the old fitting, I hear they can differ from one end to the other. He checked just cause we had to wait and we found out sure enough, they were different. NAPA guy knew how to deal with it no problem. Autozone and AdvanceAuto fail.
 
I was hoping they might sell the prefab line, but didn't find anything but flex assemblies in an online search. At least they know what they're doing! :)
 
If I knew what I was doing I could have gotten what I wanted at stop #1, still the assortment of fittings is pretty confusing, much better to have help. Parking lot repairs far from home are nerve wracking. We got the radiator swapped and brakes back in business and truck operational again so it was all good.
 
+1 on NAPA

Generally my experience is that your local NAPA is a tier above your local AdvancedPepZone for anything other than mass market requirements, like brakes for a Camry or a serpentine belt for a Ford F150.

The older and dingy-er (if that's even a word LOL) the NAPA store and the crustier the counter guy, the more likely you are to leave with a solution:clap:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top