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Help! Brake Union Stuck!

thescouselander
Posts: 5,547 Forumite


in Motoring
So what started as a simple bearing replacement on the other half's car has turned into a bigger job involving replacement of the rear brake shoes and a leaking cylinder:(
The problem is the union nut in going into the brake cylinder is stuck fast. I've tried everything from spanners to mole grips and of course lots of WD40 but nothing is working.
Ideas anyone?
The problem is the union nut in going into the brake cylinder is stuck fast. I've tried everything from spanners to mole grips and of course lots of WD40 but nothing is working.
Ideas anyone?
0
Comments
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Does it have a horse shoe clip or similar keeping the cylinder in place? If so, take it off, take the bleed nipple off and try holding the brake pipe nut with a spanner and turn the cylinder off of the pipe. Usually works if you have the room. (Presume you've already soaked the joint with Plus Gas/WD40)0
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Try undoing the affected pipe/flexible at the other end, if it undo's OK there maybe you could get the slave cyl out complete with pipe attached...then if it won't come undone get a new pipe made up by the factors...course sods law decrees the other end of this pipe is routed over half the suspension and buried deep in the chassis..;)0
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Thanks everyone - a bit more wrestling with the mole grips did it in the end - the union nut isn't looking to pretty though.0
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replace the pipe and union cant be too safe with brakes.
Local car spares place can probably make the pipe0 -
.... and in future, use a penetrating oil like plusgas, not WD40 - it is not a particularly good penetrant.0
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And brake pipe spanners0
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.... and in future, use a penetrating oil like plusgas, not WD40 - it is not a particularly good penetrant.
Yes, sound advice I'm sure. Unfortunately I did not expect to be replacing the cylinder today so I had to work with what I had as the local motorfactors (the only one open on a sunday) didn't have anything more suitable.0 -
Absolutely!
The whole idea of a brake pipe spanner is that it's 'nearly' a ring type spanner, just that there's enough of a gap to get through a brake pipe. Much better than a standard spanner.
I did try a brake union spanner but it was just starting to round the nut off - it was really stuck.0
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