Brake line tightness/tips?

[dranobob]

I recently had several cracked brake hoses on my LX so I decided to replace all the rubber hoses. Now I can't seem to get them not to be wet around the nut on the steel brake lines. Every single one shows signs of being slightly wet even after cleaning them off.

I am using a 10M flare nut wrench, but any tighter and they are starting to round. Any thoughts to what I'm doing wrong? I have checked to make sure each line end is clean and straight before tightening.

 

[Tools R Us]

A common mistake is to over tighten them, IIRC, they only go to ~10ft/lb ish. Most don't have the crowfoot needed to torque, so, just nice and snug. Once they have been over torqued, the flare end on the line becomes work hardened and some times cracked, then will not seal properly. The fix is to replace or if there is enough line re-flare the hard line.

 

[dranobob]

whelp. that sucks. to replace all the metals lines that connect to the rubber hoses looks to be less than $100 with shipping, so I guess i could have goofed worse

 

[dranobob]

Also looks like I'll pick up some crowfoot metrics this week so not to ruin the new lines.

 

[dranobob]

@Tools R Us Just finished replacing all the lines. You were correct, everyone of the ends were crushed from over tightening. So valuable lesson learned. I was able to pickup some crowsfoot flare nut wrenches at Harbor Freight for almost nothing. Made the tightening a breeze.