Friend needs help with a Jeep clutch hose..

[diesel4me]

A friend of mine has to repair a 92 CJ Jeep's clutch slave cylinder...Jeep has a lift kit,maybe 2-4" installed in it...when the slave cylinder went south,the owner bought a used one from a salvage yard (against my friends suggestions,but he is low on cash)..anyway,he's not a mechanic,when he went to pull the slave off it,he didn't know how to release the hydraulic hose from the slave cyl,which has a roll pin that must be inserted after putting the hose in --so he used cutting pliers to snip it off!!.....and he cut it practically flush with the slave cyl too............................................................................................................................................................................................................The hydraulic line on the jeep evidently came with the lift kit,as a stock one is now too short to fit now,and it was damaged from rubbing against something and is about to pop,so he doesn't want to re-use it...calling around to 4x4 shops and parts stores has resulted in dissapointment,as they all claim they cant even supply a stock line,and it wont fit anyway,being too short..dealer wants almost 150 bucks becuase it come only attatched to the slave cyl!..and the 4x4 shops say the only way to get that "custom" extended line is to buy a lift kit! (has to be BS,I cant believe that!)...we've tried and failed to splice two halves of each hose together with push on hose barb fittings,the hose is some hard plastic stuff that wont let the barb fittings slide into it,and heating the fitting or hose just ended up ruining it..............................................................................................................................................................................................................I would think there must be some kind of extention for the stock line you can buy,or a longer custom line separately avialble from some source??...the owner took all the remains of the old lines to a hydraulic hose shop to see if they can make something that'll work,but I doubt they will be able to duplicate the end that goes in the slave cylinder--the clutch master side has a female nut fitting,so that might be possible to duplicate,but its probably some bizzare metric O ring fitting thread that wont be cheap.................................................................................................Anyone have any ideas??...

 

[sweetk30]

lots of the new fuel lines use the same plastic line.

thay make repair kits with bulk fittings / and line in 25 ft rolls .

find someone with a kit and have them make you a new line from the bulk roll.

and tell this guy dont cut anything on newer cars as almost all of it is not easy to fix / replace / find.

 

[diesel4me]

Yeah,if he wasn't so snip-happy we probably could have made one line from the remains of both hoses!..........................................................................the line was a clear plastic stuff,not like the usual black fuel lines you see on later model vehicles,and it didn't like being heated with a heat gun,it bubbled up and became gooey no matter how careful we tried to be...if it were the black stuff we probably could have spliced it sucessfully,my friend has dealt with that on fuel lines many times --I will relay your suggestions to him......................................................................................................I just cant see why no one supposedly sells the longer line for lifted Jeeps separately....and that they used such a dumb setup at the slave end too,what was wrong with flared fittings??...I know,so you have to buy the slave cyl. AND the hose as a unit,and make the dealers more $$$$$$..sigh...everything has to be "complicated" today!....what a POS setup for a vehicle thats supposed to be trusted "off road"..!..

 

[Fordum]

Couple of thoughts without actually seeing the setup.
I am assuming external cylinder. If so, then remember that the main crucial parts of that cylinder are diameter and travel.
Well, pressure rating too, but we are not dealing with high pressure here.

So, depending on how much of a pain it is, I would look into retrofitting a different cylinder on there.
You would either have to redrill the mounting holes, or make an adapter. But, if you can find an off the shelf cylinder that is close, then you could solve the problem one and for all.

Also, hot water is your friend when working with that type tubing. I have had to splice stuff like that before, and a heat gun just will not give even enough heat, or controlled enough temperature.

Sometimes right out of the tap, or you may have to put a pot on the stove if you need higher heat.