Club 80-90 Forums

I'm needing to cut out some corroded sections of brake pipe, the long one front to back. I'm having difficulty flaring the end of the original steel pipe to accept an adaptor to take the new copper piece.
Is it possible to anneal the steel pipe to make it soft enough to flare with my hand held flaring tool.

They tend to get brittle. Better to replace a length with new (which will be easier to flare) rather than try with an old pipe.

Your tool might not be up to the job. If it's one of those cheap ones it's not really strong enough for steel pipe.

The clutch pipe on my 1981 camper had corroded near the slave cylinder. I thought it would be easy to put a connector on the accessible straight length near the gearbox and replace a short section, I was floored when I found I could not flare the original pipe -it always pushed out of my flaring tool, I assumed that perhaps the diameter was slightly less than is used now. I had to replace the full length to a connector above the spare wheel, annoying but job done.

I have flared the steel pipes with a cheap tool from ebay but its best to use a joiner and flare the steel with a single flare(funnel shaped) and the copper with the matching double flare , use the type of joiner that allows the pipes to meet together at these flares (no block inbetween. If you try to double flare the steel with a cheap tool it can go off centre or crack/split.

I've use one of these on steel pipes...makes nice neat flares...

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/400891784693" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;