I'm almost done with the front end on this Aspen... I got the rotors and bearings on yesterday and put the new calipers and pads on today...
I was going to put the new brake hoses on and noticed that they are about 2" shorter than the old mystery hoses on the car now.... the hoses are Wagner Brand BH99070/BH99071 which catalogs for the F-body, and an alternate for the Diplomat... but they are just a bit short...

Is there an alternate brake hose that is longer, or anyone with an F body that has a known "good" hose number?

The lore used to be that 1980 F bodies had longer hoses than 76-79. I remember that from the old trick of being able to keep the stock 63-66 A body front sway bar but upgrading to late disc brakes by swapping spindles side to side and using the 1980 F body brake hoses.

77 mopar part no 3766 620-1 for HNFG 78 mopar no 4026 144-5 for HNFG [ maybe after recall ] 79 no info 1980 mopar 4126 776-7 for HNFG and BXS. Length and brackets should be different. This is old info ,part numbers etc can change.

Just looked at 79 and 80 side by side. 79 metal brake line is mounted to frame in front of axle. 80 metal brake line is mounted to frame behind axle.

Do not trust this info. Been a very long time. Before and after recall and or running production changes plus after market parts. The after hose was too short and the hose mounting bracket was different. If just bolted up ,looked like it might kink in turns. At the time[30 plus years] the quick and bad method was to not bolt up hose mounting bracket and or re drill hole in bracket..Plus remove metal brake line mounting clip. After clip was gone metal brake line could be moved to gain more length.None of this was a good fix.

The 1980+ hose is about 15" long, the ones I have are 17" long and are for the metal line connection in front of the spindles...

I did a mock up, these hoses have the metal "clamp" that bolts to the K member... comparing closely and side by side, it looks like Wagner crimped the clamps to close to the caliper end which gives more room to the metal brake line and not enough to the spindle side to reach....

If I could figure out how to unclamp these without damaging the outer hose...

Glad you under stand the problem. Custom line maybe ?

Dang. My memory failed me again. Sorry.

I wish I knew a place that could make me 2 at 19" and I'd be "set".

Can they be braided stainless? http://www.wofsco.com Years ago those guys made me some braided brake lines for a Ford van I used to own. I just had to bring in the old rubberline with the fittings on the ends so the fittings could be reused. I had to go in person to their warehouse in Tacoma, but they have a fabrication shop on-site to manufacture everything hydraulic for semi trucks so they can fabricate just about any kind of hose or coupler you need.

You can get Goodridge brand DOT braided PTFE/stainless hoses from summit and other outlets. I have had a set on my 64 Dart brake setup since 1998... You will likely need a few adapter fittings too, since they are 3AN.

Lou

_________________
Home of Slant6-powered fun machines

Here is what I have used on the 78/9's


http://www.rockauto.com/catalog/emailpa ... ose%2C1792

THose hoses Mount to the K frame as pictured.


THe Caliper Position CHanged on the 80 Volare along with subtle other things that were carried onto the FJM's through 1989 - Heating box, Ac Components, Condenser mounting block - Turnsignal stalk etc.

Greg

_________________
http://www.youtube.com/hyperpack

Rob,
I'm pretty sure the guys at Northwest Tubes N Hoses (near me in Vancouver) can make up anything you want. I've used them several times with great results. If you want I can bring a sample back with me and stop in to get their thoughts on fabbing one up.

Zach

LOL... a few minutes of sweating and swearing in the violence of the sun this afternoon I finally got it figured out....

This is one of those interesting issues with the diagrams and pics in the FSM and FPC.... Looks like Mopar recycled a bunch of stock pics in the service brakes section from the 1975-1976 manual...and were carried forward in the 1978 manual... that and being in autopilot mode I just bolted up the spindles and caliper brackets like a late A body... and that matched the pics and HNFG pics in the 1978 manual... but... the HN should be like the C body diagram...
where the caliper sits toward the back of the car instead of toward the front of the car on the A-body... but like the A-body the hose passes under the stud for the upper ball joint but in this case in reverse direction...

So the answer here is 30 minutes of pulling the rotors, popping a ball joint, and 2 bolts at the knuckle and swapping the spindles side to side....
reassembling and reinstalling the front brakes, but it all fits perfectly... and I'm going to curse some retired publishing department personnel of Mopar past for using A body slider brake pics and diagrams to save time and money in the FSM....