Brake line repair - copper crush washers?

NYSpeed Automotive
1

I had a brake line rupture due to rust on my work truck. Thankfully this happened in my driveway and not on the highway. Apparently this is not an uncommon occurrence for early 2000’s GM trucks and I should consider myself lucky to have only had to have dealt with it at this point.

I was hoping to get this job done with minimal effort, but of course the line ruptured above the gas tank and below the bed. No easy repair option to be had I decided I’d just replace most of the lines and upgrade to stainless.

I purchased a pre bent kit and got the bed removed. Most of the removal and install went quickly but when it came time to bleed the system a leak developed where the new lines connect to the brake pressure modulator valve.

I loosened and retightened the nuts several times without any success. I believe all of the flares are in good shape and have no reason to suspect the mating surfaces on the bpmv are fouled. I’m wondering if the hardness of the stainless steel is stopping the flare from forming to the seat?

if this is the case I have heard of using a soft copper washer to allow for this deformation between mating surfaces to happen. Has anyone used this method to deal with a tricky brake line connection? Did it work? Where did you find the washers?

any advice would be appreciated.

2

A lot of times the threads come out from the abs block. You can try a non tapered tap to re thread. You’re probably going to need to replace the abs block though.

3

I have considered that and inspected the block with a camera. It looked pretty good but there is always the chance it is stripped out. I’m hoping that isn’t the case.

4

I was not able to find any copper crush washers small enough to fit the flare I was dealing with.

i had just been using a typical open end wrench to tighten the fittings. Given the constraints around the ABS module I wasn’t able to get a great deal of leverage. I decided to get a set of flare line wrenches to see if I could get more tongue on the fittings.

while the flare line wrenches are pretty limited in the available angle of attack, I could get a good deal more force on the fitting. This extra bit of force seemed to be enough to get the flares to seat correctly.