Any tips on removing old brake hoses?

Im replacing the front brake hoses on my 79 C30 right now and cannot get the hard line disconnected from the hose. Honestly, I dont see how you are supposed to do it, there is no room in the frame there to do much of anything with the other two hard lines running through the same place lol. Im tempted to pull the fuel pump off just so i can fit my hand in there a little better but I would rather not. Just wondering which tools you guys use and if you had any tricks to make it easier. Ive been soaking it with penetrant but doesnt seem to be helping. Thanks!

Fire wrench.

Heat it up, spray it, let it soak and cool, heat it up again, and spray it some more.

Use flare nut wrenches on the fittings for more grip.

I just did mine today. I removed the horseshoe clip on the rubber end of the line where it goes through the frame. Then I was able to push the brake line in towards the engine bay, this gave me better access to where the metal line goes into rubber line. I used a 16mm and vice grips to get them apart (too much rust and the wrench wanted to round out the end of the line). It was a bitch.
I sprayed penetrating fluid on it throughout the week and it didn't help much.

I am just going off memory, but based on the accessibility of the hard line to distribution valve, could you replace them both and just wreck it the rest of the way off? It wlisnt a long run and you could buy a premade one I'm sure

I used vise grips and still broke the line.Had to replace the line

I don't know if this'll help you, but I had to make it to change the front lines on my 83 C20 where there was no room to work in the frame.
Used a cheap made in China wrench I didn't care about and never used anyway and made a large flare nut wrench from it to fit where there's only room enough for a hand to fit and very little swing room and needed to hold the large fitting.
Definitely use only flare nut wrenches, and penetrating oil, and possibly a bit of heat if the fittings are rusted.
Best of luck to you!!
Those lines can be a challenge, especially if a truck is from the rust belt.

Crowfoot flare nut wrench, very handy.

curse said:

I just did mine today. I removed the horseshoe clip on the rubber end of the line where it goes through the frame. Then I was able to push the brake line in towards the engine bay, this gave me better access to where the metal line goes into rubber line. I used a 16mm and vice grips to get them apart (too much rust and the wrench wanted to round out the end of the line). It was a bitch.
I sprayed penetrating fluid on it throughout the week and it didn't help much.

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I think ill try that. Seems like if it was pushed through a bit I might actually be able to get a wrench on it.
I dont know if its just my fat fingers or what, but it took me 10 minutes to get a wrench on there, and then of course it fell off right away. Thats when I threw the wrench and made this post...

AuroraGirl said:

I am just going off memory, but based on the accessibility of the hard line to distribution valve, could you replace them both and just wreck it the rest of the way off? It wlisnt a long run and you could buy a premade one I'm sure

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I could buy new lines, but im trying to get her on the road and running out of money lol

mrburitto said:

I could buy new lines, but im trying to get her on the road and running out of money lol

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how i do understand that feeling. I dont think it costs much, I guess, think of it like this. If its a bitch to come off from rust, it might just be rusty enough to have a hole or stress fracture from the work your doing to work with it, whenm you could buy a 4 foot length of line and just not have to handle the BS

Turbo4whl said:

Crowfoot flare nut wrench, very handy.

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This ^^^

mtnmankev said:

I don't know if this'll help you, but I had to make it to change the front lines on my 83 C20 where there was no room to work in the frame.
Used a cheap made in China wrench I didn't care about and never used anyway and made a large flare nut wrench from it to fit where there's only room enough for a hand to fit and very little swing room and needed to hold the large fitting.
Definitely use only flare nut wrenches, and penetrating oil, and possibly a bit of heat if the fittings are rusted.
Best of luck to you!!
Those lines can be a challenge, especially if a truck is from the rust belt.

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Click to expand...

I have these in several sizes.

Ok, I call ******** lol. I bought line wrenches, I bought crowfoot wrenches, I bought stubby wrenches, and ive been soaking it with penetrating oil for a week. That F**ker will not come off. The ONLY wrench that I was physically able to grab the line with was a flex head line wrench. But after one attempt at breaking it loose, the flex head lost all integrity and just flopped around making it impossible to get it back on there lol. I also tried to remove the nut/washer thing holding it to the inside of the frame and only ever got it to turn about 1/4 turn and then it wouldnt budge anymore. To be fair, a crowfoot may have worked, but for some reason the 3/8ths crowfoot in my set was NOT a true 3/8ths and wouldnt fit on the nut lol.

Last night I broke down and pulled out the death wheel and cut that bitch off from the outside. Then I could push it through and get the line off. I maintain that is the only way to get that line off on a 79 C30 with a 454. The only exception being if your lines are brand new with zero rust. Either way its done now, and I only wasted a week of my life waiting for multiple sets of wrenches to be delivered only to have them all fail me lol.

Thanks everyone for the input. And I know its not that bad on most squares because I have changed the lines on my 79 K20 without too much trouble. But this damn C30 was a whole different animal. There just is not room to fit your hand or a wrench in there on the passenger side. Now we know, death wheel conquers all, brake hoses from the 70's can go to hell

Not a fan of those myself, and this is off of an Oregon truck that is not rusty.

There had to have been a better way - or, harder metal.

Phuckers.

oh no, thats unfortunate... cutting it off from the outside actually worked pretty well. and i can tell you with certainty that it can be done without putting any notches into the frame itself. The most I did was scratch the paint off a little around it with the grinder. Didnt really take any material off though.