Scott's RV-14 Build

Brakes Lines Complete

Finished the remaining brakes lines. Was slowed down upon realizing I'd made a mistake on the left side where 2 previously installed lines were installed on the lower master cylinder fittings when they needed to be on the upper fittings. No problem, I'll swap them. Think again. Compression fittings can only be torqued once, then they must be replaced. So now I'm down a rabbit hole needing parts due to a dumb error on my part. Fortunately I found the 1/4" brass compression ferrules at a local aviation parts store. I was able to shorten and reuse the 37" long lines lines by 7/16" with plenty of slack and free play left for pedal movement. And reuse the brass inserts after carefully cutting them out of the snipped ends. That problem dealt with it was on to the remaining 2 lines. I first had to get the 45 degree brass elbows installed and clocked to the correct orientation. Being NPT fittings they needed thread sealer and then care when torqueing them in. Technique is to screw them in hand tight, then turn them 1.5-2.0 more turns. That ends up being really tight so you need to note the clock position for a 45 or 90 degree elbow and ensure you have the needed extra turns to end up at the desired position. You can't loosen the fitting as there's a good chance it'll leak. Only tighten. If you loosen it you need to remove it, clean everything off and try again. So with much care I got both elbows installed, clocked and torqued correctly. From there it was on to fabricating the remaining 2 lines and compression fittings. That install went smooth and I was thankful for my crows foot wrenches for the 45 deg elbows. Using a box wrench on those would have been tough. The plans only call for two zipties to secure the maze of lines. I think its to ensure freedom of movement and reducing stress areas in the lines and fittings as the pedal are moved. I may add extra zip ties in the future to clean things up a bit when I have a better picture of how everything moves and interacts.

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