Re: Fuel and brake lines [desperate]

[T Berk <tberk@mindspring.com>]

"Blake P. Pelzer" wrote:
> 
> Okay, a month ago I bought my first car, an 87 16v with 60000 miles. I was
> told that the passenger side e-brake cable was bad, so I took it in and
> was informed that he didn't want to touch the ebrake unless I wanted all
> the brake lines replaced as both they and the fuel lines were too fragile
> with rust to be played with. As this was some crazy old mercedes shop,
> this would be too expensive a procedure for me right now. So here are my
> questions.
> 
> 1. How soon does this need to be done? There are no leaks at present.
> 

Hard to say the guy is nuts without seeing the car. I'm in Cali were we
hardly see any rust. Not leakin'? Don't f- with it.

> 2. Obviously the cost here is in the labor, so its clearly time consuming,
> but is it possible for a totally ignorant person to even think of
> attempting it?

You want to replace the E-Brake cable? Go for it. In fact get two and do
them as a pair- the other one is just as old, it's all stretched out and
the new one won't be, etc, etc.
 
> 3. Does anyone know someone who could do this for me at a labor cost of
> less than 65 an hour within a 4 hour radius of Chicago?
> 
> Thanks a lot
> Blake
> 

I don't know from shops in Chi town but I have replaced ebrake cables
before. In addition to the normal "Installation is the reverse of
removal..." stuff, I found it useful to lube the tube, the cable on both
ends, (working it in and out so the lube gets into the sheath), and the
little bearing points were pressure comes to bear.

I used synthetic Redline bearing grease because it's what I had, but
lithium grease would serve. You want to keep dirt and moisture out and
not have it be to thin a lube. 

I cut the old cables to aid in removal, and when it came time to thread
the new ones in I found things to be a little tight. I had to stuff the
sheath ends under the car into the tube real hard, and still I needed to
use some pliers and a bunch of tuggin on the cable end in the car to get
it attached to the crossbeam bracket on the lever. 

Fun but tedious, not a big deal. Working under the car? Be sure to use
mighty jack stands, don't work under with just the floor jack
supporting. in fact I like to stick the wheel I might have pulled off
under the car as a cya move.

Take a few hours as it's your first time but definitely you want to do
this yourself.

hth,
TBerk
btw-  The Ravens just scored on my Raiders. Grrrr. 7-0.

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