i really hate brake lines

i got another 3 hours or so of work in last night. overall it was good but i did have one setback. i'll get to that later.

first off, i got the driver's side backing plate off pretty easily. i had to take off the bleeder valve in order to take off the brake line. it was just stuck to the spindle with years worth of crud and a little rust. once i got it off i detached the rubber brake line from the main line and put on the new stainless steel line. however, i couldn't get the rubber hose separated from the tiny hard line that goes from the rubber hose to the backing plate (soon it'll go to the caliper). i used a ton of liquid wrench and just beat on it. it wouldn't even budge when i used vice grips! needless to say, i pretty much rounded the bolt on the one side. so i need to call up the local VW parts place and see if they sell that little hard line.

the good news is that i got the caliper mounting bracket all hooked up and once i pack the bearings tonight, i can put on the disc and mount the caliper.

next, i switched over to the passenger side and ripped it all down. took me about 5 minutes! shows what you can do the second time around. had a little trouble getting the rubber hose off of the main line but my vice grips worked like a charm and i didn't harm the main line. i cleaned off the spindle, put on the caliper mounting bracket and this side is also set for bearings, disc and caliper. hopefully i can get all the done tonight and be mostly done with the discs.

i love how my directions said it would take 3 hours to do the whole thing. i've spent close to double that. i guess they mean it'll take 3 hours if you don't have rusty bolts or any other problems and you've done this before. below are more pictures i snapped last night.


here's a shot of the driver's side all stripped down to the spindle.


this is what the driver's side looks like now. the caliper bracket is in place and so is the stainless steel line.


here's a shot of the finished passenger side. caliper bracket is on and the stainless steel line is all set.


i thought this was a funny name for a company that makes bearings. too many jokes were swirling around in my head after seeing this.