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98 2.2L Replacing Stainless Flex Lines from Master Cylinder to Prop Valv

4K views 12 replies 3 participants last post by  NextName 
#1 ·
I have a 1998 s10 2.2l that recently blew a hole through one of the flexible stainless braided flex lines running between the Master Cylinder and the Proportioning Valve. Luckily I was able to nurse the truck home with only having to press the brake pedal once to stop at a single stop sign (gotta love 5 speeds).

I went to local Auto parts store and they said I had to use the flex lines due to the pressure in the system and the hoses would allow a little bit of give where hard lines would not. The guy at the Auto parts store said if I used hard lines I would end up blowing seals out in the system due to the added pressure in the lines from the Master Cylinder to the Proportioning Valves.

Anyone have any light to shed on this? I need to get the truck back on the road but don't want to risk screwing anything else up at this point.

Thanks!
 
#2 ·
I don't think it would blow out seals, since a steel braided line really doesn't have much give to begin with, a hard line shouldn't make much of a difference. But, a flex line probably should be used since it would reduce/prevent stress on the fitting ends when things jiggle around over bumps, and normal movement (ie body roll).

A little more money, and probably something they have to order, but I would recommend just getting new flex lines and have the peace of mind that you did it as right as you could.

A lot of cars and trucks don't use flex lines between the MC and the prop valve, they use hard lines. And they generally don't blow out seals because of system pressure unless they're old and totally worn out.
 
#3 ·
So now the question is where can I get these made / ordered? I looked at inlinetube and they said they only sell the solid lines now. I went to the Chevy dealership and the guy there said it is a 16 year old vehicle and I should just get the parts out of a junkyard (not sure about everyone else, but brakes is not something I want to play around with).

I am going to try to go to the local NAPA shop in the morning and see what they can offer, but this seems like something someone somewhere would have come up with for an aftermarket part for.

Any help appreciated!
 
#4 ·
GM likes to discontinue support for older vehicles. Try looking around on summit or rockauto for the flex lines. Thinking about it now though, I'm not sure how much stress could even be put on those lines in a simple 4 cyl s10, that would truly require steel braided flex lines. Autozone quite often will have some of these more oddball parts available around too.
 
#6 ·
I can send pictures of the flex lines if you want to see them :) I even have the parts diagram showing the flex lines. Anyway after much looking and not finding I ended up buying the hard lines and bending something to work and flaring it and all that nice stuff (never done it before).

Not thrilled with how it came out so am redoing it this week, but I can drive it if I have to. It was recommended to be by sever people to make a couple of loops (coil) the line to give it a little room to flex if needed, not sure I will be going that far or not.

Thank you for all of your help! Now I proudly own a double flaring kit, line bending tool, and pressure bleeder for the brakes. I was afraid of messing with brake lines until this happened and now I see it really isn't that bad to deal with. Just takes a lot of patience!

Thank you all again.
 
#7 ·
Feel free to post a picture.

As I said, there are no flex lines between the master cylinder and proportioning valve, whether you have discs or drums. There are flex lines between the proportioning valve and ABS block, but that's it.

If you are trying to run solid lines in place of flex, especially between the proportioning valve and ABS block, it is more than just recommended to run coils in the line to absorb the shock. Otherwise, being that the prop valve mounts to the booster on the firewall and the ABS block mounts right on the fender well, there is a chance that hitting a bump will crimp your lines and leave you without brakes.

The engineers knew what they were doing when they put flex lines there. They're more expensive so they wouldn't have put them there if there wasn't a very good reason for it.
 
#8 ·
Here is the official parts diagram from a GM dealer. Same parts diagram they used to tell me I was out of luck.

http://parts.nalleygmc.com/showAssembly.aspx?ukey_assembly=432593&ukey_product=3113112

The need part is #9 which is listed as PIPE. Hydraulic Brake. It goes between #6 and #19 called the Hydraulic Brake Control Module.

My apologies as I kept saying proportioning valve, but it is all part of that unit. So I called around and no one is telling me they can make or do these and that they just used hard lines now.

Any suggestions? The GM Part number is: 15722018
 
#10 ·
I called inline tube and they only sell hard lines now according to the person I spoke to. I went by the local GM parts department, gave him my VIN and they pulled up the same exact diagram. In the description it shows it for the 2.2l when you click the link on the part it shows a short description and then you can click on more and it shows the full listing and it definitely shows the 2.2L engine.

The diagram matches my truck right on down the part numbers stamped on the Electronic Valve control module. Just for fun I will snap a pick tonight just so everyone here won't think I am totally insane :)

I am not trying to argue, I just keep calling and talking to different suppliers and they all tell me that they do not use flex lines and they are not available. I just can't believe that is possible considering the abundance of these vehicles.

I guess I will keep calling around since GM doesn't sell them. Inlinetube says they use hard lines. NAPA is no help which rules out Advance and Auotozone. Talked to a couple of shops and no joy there. I really would be happy at this point with a short 3/16 line to a short 3/16 flex line to another short 3/16 line. I don't care if they are all one piece or not, but I can't seem to find anyone to confirm that they can sell a piece of flex line suitable for this application - which seems ridiculous.

I would just order the inline tube but they are $65.00 for the pair. If they are just hard lines then that is a ridiculous price considering I have one made for about $6.00 at this point, I just don't want to drive around on it until I am sure it is OK to do so.

I suppose my question is still valid since I have received 2 different responses:

1. You don't need flex lines.
2. You need flex lines.

Has anyone here on this forum seen / had a truck with these lines and replaced them with either flex or hard lines?

I do appreciate your assistance NextName, but I have been around and around on this with parts departments and am positive these are supposed to be there and they are the correct lines for my vehicle. What I don't understand is what a normal person with at least average intelligence (referring to me) is supposed to do when this breaks and no one seems to sell the parts for it and then am told that you have to have them by one shop and then you don't need them by another shop and then the places that sell drop in replacements say they don't sell flex lines for this applications.

If you know of somewhere other than inline that might be able to reasonably produce something suitable please let me know.

Thank you all again for your help in advance.
 
#11 ·
I purchased a full set of stainless brake lines from Inline Tube around a month or two ago. They used stainless braided flex lines where they were called for.

If you told them you were looking for the lines between the master cylinder and prop valve, then they would say there's nothing other than hard lines. If you said you were looking for the lines between the MC and ABS block and that you don't have a separate proportioning valve, they will have the flex lines. One of the questions they asked me when I was ordering the lines was whether or not I had the separate prop valve.
 
#12 ·
Just got back off of the phone from inlinetube.com and had a different associate who knew exactly what I was talking about and even had one of the folks put hands on the item to ensure it was the pipe-flex line-pipe.

I will post back once I get them and install them.
 
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