This past weekend's work consisted of trying to change the blown brake line. Easy! There's so much room for activities under there! It runs right along the frame rail! There's already a union in the middle of the chassis, presumably from the last time this happens and praise be the lord the blown line unscrewed from that without much drama but...
The spot where the line connects to the chassis-to-axle hose is basically impossible to reach without dropping the driveshaft... Which should be easy, except it's blasted on there tighter than we can deal with without air tools (aside from the one bolt that was less than finger tight). And it can't get close enough to the shop for the air tools to be effective (70ft of hose is less than conducive to getting good power output). So that ain't happening right yet.
And it seems like the fitting where it connects to the hose is stripped anyway, so may as well replace the hose. Except the confined space makes it impossible to pull the fugging spring clip holding the hose to the bracket. The bracket is, of course, welded to the frame.
The approximate plan is to extend the brake hose bracket, cut the existing hose, attach a new hose to the bracket extension, run the new line to the new hose, and pretend everything is fine.
After that, I'll get a road service company to come change all 6 tires on site. 8 lugs per corner torqued to like 300ftlb, without air tools. Not having to do that myself is worth hundreds of dollars in road service fees
Then drive it to a truck shop for the safety inspection and have them change the air springs and loosen/retighten the driveshaft bolts.
Ordered:
- Tap an air tool system off the air suspension reservoir.
Incidentally, here's a lighter duty, similarly equipped one for sale with not much other than distasteful graphics added and some inexplicable firefighting gear:
That guy really needs to put down the crackpipe.
The spot where the line connects to the chassis-to-axle hose is basically impossible to reach without dropping the driveshaft... Which should be easy, except it's blasted on there tighter than we can deal with without air tools (aside from the one bolt that was less than finger tight). And it can't get close enough to the shop for the air tools to be effective (70ft of hose is less than conducive to getting good power output). So that ain't happening right yet.
And it seems like the fitting where it connects to the hose is stripped anyway, so may as well replace the hose. Except the confined space makes it impossible to pull the fugging spring clip holding the hose to the bracket. The bracket is, of course, welded to the frame.
The approximate plan is to extend the brake hose bracket, cut the existing hose, attach a new hose to the bracket extension, run the new line to the new hose, and pretend everything is fine.
After that, I'll get a road service company to come change all 6 tires on site. 8 lugs per corner torqued to like 300ftlb, without air tools. Not having to do that myself is worth hundreds of dollars in road service fees
Then drive it to a truck shop for the safety inspection and have them change the air springs and loosen/retighten the driveshaft bolts.
Ordered:
- Like $500 worth of professional brake tube bending and flaring tools because I am sick to death of the parts store DIYer ones that don't work for shit
- A coil of stainless brake line
- A bunch of stainless brake fittings
- A new rear brake chassis-to-axle hose
- 3/4 drive 33mm socket (lug nuts) (just in case)
- 3/4 drive 10 inch extension because dually
- Jackstands of sufficient magnitude
- A bottle jack capable of dealing with this monster
- Tap an air tool system off the air suspension reservoir.
Incidentally, here's a lighter duty, similarly equipped one for sale with not much other than distasteful graphics added and some inexplicable firefighting gear:
That guy really needs to put down the crackpipe.
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