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Guide to steel braided lines?


Varius

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I'd like to do braided lines on my '98, but I can't find any complete guides on doing this. Anybody have any experience here, successfully or no? I'm getting an idea from the service manual of how to bleed the lines correctly, but I know replacing the lines is a pretty involved process... Thanks in advance - new here, trying not to get in over my head haha. Reading this forum had helped me with a lot of maintenance already!

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I installed a set of Galfer lines on a 2000 5th Gen just three weeks ago.  It wasn't my bike.  A friend brought the bike and all the parts to my garage (he doesn't have much experience wrenching on bikes).

 

A couple of years ago I installed a set of Spiegler lines on my 1999 5th Gen.

 

We removed all three calipers. Disassembled them for a thorough cleaning.  And then we replaced all of the caliper's piston seals and wiper rings (yeah, 20 year old rubber should be replaced).  We also removed, cleaned and rebuilt the front brake master cylinder, the clutch master cylinder the rear brake master cylinder and the clutch slave cylinder.

 

We chose not to remove the Secondary Master Cylinder from the Front Left Caliper.  And we were very careful not to disturb its original adjustment.  Messing with the Secondary Master Cylinder is a bit of a perilous thing, if you get it messed up at all it can cause all sorts of trouble with the bike's rear brake (the Secondary Master Cylinder controls the center piston of the rear brake).  We decided that we were doing enough other things with all the removal-disassembly-cleaning-refurbishing plus installation of the new braided stainless steel lines.

 

So, to repeat, we decided to defer cleaning and rebuilding his bike's Secondary Master Cylinder until a later maintenance day when it will be the only thing we're doing.

 

Installing the new set of Galfer lines was easy.  Galfer provides a very precise set of step-by-step instructions.  If you're any good at following directions the install is easy and logical.  This was the easiest, most enjoyable part of the whole day.

 

When the install work is complete, bleeding the brakes is a two-person job. 

 

The Honda Service Manual has a (kinda confusing) description of the order in which you are meant to bleed the brakes.  The first time you read through these directions you'll end up confused.  The second time it will begin to make sense.  The third read-through will make enough sense that you'll be able to make a personal set of notes on the proper order.  The fourth very careful read-through will be necessary to confirm the order you've written on your personal set of notes.

 

I have a MityVac that I purchased at Harbor Freight.  As we moved from one bleeder valve to the next I would put the MityVac suction on it, then I would tell the bike's owner to pull the brake lever in and hold it (or push down on the rear brake pedal and hold it, or pull in the clutch lever and hold it).  Then I would open the bleeder for a second to pull brake fluid through the lines.

 

The thing that makes these Honda Linked Brakes so hard to bleed is (duh) because they're linked.  You have to keep track of which bleeder is for which caliper pistons.  Without doubt the trickiest part is properly bleeding the Secondary Master Cylinder to the Proportional Control Valve (just behind the fuel tank) to the center Rear Caliper piston.  You have to hook the MityVac to the correct bleeder on the Rear Caliper and have your helper compress/pump the Secondary Master Cylinder.

 

In my experience it takes at least two full rounds of bleeding all of the bleeders in the correct order to achieve success.

 

And the full job that we did: disassembly, cleaning, replacing rubber parts, re-installing the calipers, installing the new lines and bleeding the brakes took two full days in the garage.

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  • Member Contributer

I'd agree with all that...... but easy enough once you understand the flow loops...... note with empty lines and SpeedBleeders, you'll have to use a vacuum system to fill the lines until at least most of the air is out and the master cylinder can pump on it's own.  I'm going to do stainless lines later this year, ordered and on the way... I probably should rebuild all the calipers and master cylinders.... not askeered of the SMC, but would do that after I had the system bled as Greg is planning.  I got me more parts to order...... no rush.

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I changed mine to HELL lines. Great product, exact match to OEM bends and all other hardware needed. I ran gallons of fluid through the lines over the next couple years and used all the tricks and suggestions on the forum and felt like I never got all the air out of the system. I Delinked with Hell lines a couple years ago, one of the best changes I made. Man it felt good to get rid of all that piping, SDMC, under the seat bleed valves, 5lb calipers, etc etc etc.If changing the lines delinking might be something to consider. 

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  • 2 months later...
  • Member Contributer

When I rebuilt my brake system the PCV was seized some how and it frustrated the f@ck out of me. Had to order one on ebay and voila, bled fine. Needless to say, I don't think I had linked before the rebuild because of this anyway. Just follow the steps exactly laid out in the manual.

I used speigler lines, EBC pads and rebuilt/replaced everything. 

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I installed a set of Galfer lines on my '99 eight years ago. I took my time, read and reread the bleeding procedure, Like GreginDenver stated, you need to read it multiple times

to get a thorough understanding of the process. I tried using a MityVac that I had on hand, but, as always, the air leaks around the threads of the bleed screw and makes it

almost worthless, but it works great with Speedbleeders, which I installed before starting to bleed the lines. A very worthwhile investment.. I got the kit from a guy on here who

sells all the parts you need, but can't remember who of course. But same guy that does the VFRarness, could be on the other list though.

 

The bleeding went really quick, all things considered, and took about a quart bottle of fluid to get them all done. When you get it all bled properly and not spongy, you'll be

amazed at how well they work. Yeah, 20 year old lines have a lot more "give" than you realize.

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