Hydro clutch flex line?

[manchildau65]

So I'm installing a 92 NV4500 in my 85 and need to run the clutch hydro line from the master to the slave. I'm using the 85 master and the 91 slave but need to route the line up over the bell housing. Question is: do I need to put a section of flex line in to accommodate the frame, engine, body flex? Or will I be ok running solid 1/4" "bendable" brake line?

 

[diesel4me]

The "right" way is to use the flex line,but you probably could get away with brake tubing at least temporarily by winding some "spring" coils into it like the master cylinder lines have in them..I dont recall seeing any hard lines breaking off at the master cylinder on anything yet,unless the cab is bouncing off the frame due to rotted mounts or missing bolts,etc.............................................................................................One day I had a front rubber brake hose fail while plowing,and I used steel brake line as a temporary fix till I could get a new hose...I drove the truck to several plow jobs up to 10 miles away with that in place,I wound it around a big pipe to put some pigtail coils in it and routed it away from the spring and any other things it could get caught on...I did this in late January and never got around to fixing it right till the end of march!...I figured the line would flex a few times and snap right off,but I guess since my front axle didn't move up and down much with the plow on it (it touches the bump stops with the plow raised!),I guess it didn't move enough to snap the tubing off...I wouldn't reccomend this for daily driving,but in an emergency,I've done worse things to get home without paying for a tow when home aint that far away...

 

[sweetk30]

you can run solid till the point it runs off the driveline /trans and goes to the body . at this point you will need to have a flex hose in the mix.

also any hard line should be clamped / at min zip tied down to keep it from rattling around as this will cause the hard line to stess and crack .

 

[manchildau65]

So I don't have a flex line in the mix... but with it going over the back of the tranny and looping down the passenger side of the bellhousing, there's lots of flex in the line. I used the stock firewall clamp to secure the line directly below the master but do agree with Sweetk30 that it needs a flex between slave and where I have it secure. The plan is to run a solid line to the top of the tranny, secure it there, and then use a 12-24" piece of flex line between firewall line and tranny line.

What do you guys think of using high pressure fuel line for the flex portion? Otherwise, I could maybe get a piece of brake flex line?

Oh yeah, I fought with bleeding the damn thing for longer than I'd like to admit today... and it's still not right!

 

[sweetk30]

its just like a brake system . needs a real hose.

and brake fluid on cheep rubber fuel hose will go bad real quick.

if it was me i would have left the old hose alone from the 465 style and swaped over the nut to a reg line and used a union and then did the hard line from there and blead the system .

and trick is if the system is blead before work pinch off the flex hose and it will not drain out or let air go in . then its a super easy blead from there.

and the longer line of the newer 4500 style slave location can be a p.i.t.a . i have had fun with a few of them my self .