Well this is something like day 3 or 4 on the otherwise simple brake job on the Monte Carlo. What started off as a simple rear wheel cylinder replacement ended up being damn near a rebuild of the brake system. First I had to deal with the simple act of replacing the wheel cylinders, which because of the hardware in the wheel assembly and the nature of the retaining clip that holds each wheel cylinder, ended up taking a couple of days. When I went to remove the brake line on the last of the two wheel cylinders, the fitting was rusted to the brake line so the tube twisted and broke when I unscrewed the fitting from the old wheel cylinder. At this point I had to stop to get some replacement brake lines. I ended up getting two since I wanted to be proactive and just replace the one on the other side that I started with since that one might be compromised as well and I don't wanna have to go back to it sometime later when it weakens.
Well the one side that was broken went on pretty effortlessly. When I went to put on the other side, it turned out the damned line was the wrong size. Stupid me for assuming that the line that was missing the tag but was hanging on the rack in the spot labeled for the size I need would be the correct size. Luckily the guy let me have the line for free since it was missing the label so no real loss there. Of course that meant me putting the old line back on, no big deal right? Wrong! When I went to put the line back on to the rear brake hose block I had to fight to get the damned thing to grab the threads. When it did finally grab the threads, the slight bit of resistance that I thought was from some dirt in the threads ended up being the cross threading of the goddamned fitting! So with that fitting on the old brake line being ruined, I had to automatically assume that the block in the rear brake hose was also compromised. Now I had to get another rear brake hose along with the brake line to replace the old one! Now, I was able to put on the brake line at the wheel cylinder no problem. When I went to remove the brake hose from the line that goes back up front to the proportioning valve, I had to struggle to get the fitting to turn free. It was all in a tight space so a lot of this shit went by feel. When I finally got the fitting to start turning, I started to rejoice thinking that this debacle was finally going to come to an end. When the fitting from the main line going forward finally came free of the brake hose it fell to the ground, meaning.....of course, it twisted the brake line and snapped it free. At this point I said fuck it and went ahead and got the brake hose replaced and hooked up to the brake lines going to the wheel cylinders. I ended up removing the line from the proportioning valve in preparation to replace the whole length of metal tube. I had to pull the front fitting loose along with a short length of the metal tube in order to cross reference the size tube with what auto zone has to get the right size. I also had to check my little stash of metal fittings to see if I had a replacement fitting for the one that snapped off at the back of the brake line. Luckily I ended up finding a replacement fitting of the right size for the tubing I needed. I used my die grinder to cut the other end of the tube to remove that fitting in order to reuse it on the new tubing. I ended up getting a roll of tubing that I'l be able to use to make my own custom run of brake line from the proportioning valve back to the rear brake tube. My mistake in this whole bullshit story was the idea that I actually thought this job would be a straightforward thing, knowing that the brake system on this car is old as hell. If I went ahead and just anticipated that the brake lines might be fucked up along with the wheel cylinders, hell even the master cylinder, other components, and just went ahead and bought everything, then when shit turned out to be fucked up as I put my hands on individual components, it would've been no big deal, I'd have just replaced whatever was fucked up in the circuit. But when I think one thing's fucked up, replace it, then find the next thing in line to also be fucked up, then have to go to the store to get that shit, put it on, then find the next thing in line to be bad as well, it gets real aggravating. Add to this the idea that the weather's been sucking lately. First it rained pretty good so the ground was nice and moist. While this was not too big of a deal as I was using a tarp on the ground under the car the whole time, the next big kicker was the idea that it's been cold as hell the last few days. The night before it was a low of 21, the day time high was in the low 40's, too fucking cold to be trying to work on anything on the ground especially, in the shade, under a car, with not even the sun to help warm things up. I had to have my half drum burning hot with oil wood and scrap wood to at least serve as a brief reprieve for my cold hands while working on this brake shit. This went on for a couple of days, the freezing my ass off part that is. Now that I got the brake tubing, hopefully this will be the last day I have to fuck with this shit for a while. We'll see....
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