I'm working on doing a 5 lug swap and i bought new rubber lines since mine were cracked. Anyways, I didn't have a flare nut wrench so I took a really cheap made in China no name wrench and made it into a "flare nut wrench" took my needle nose vice grips and clamped them on as tight as I could over my wrench. Well needless to say it didn't work and my nut is a little screwed up now. Any tips to getting this thing undone? Looks like someone messed up the one on the master cylinder too though so I think I'm in store for just making new brake lines for my car.

 

clap a set of vise grips on them and I use a mini torch sometimes to heat it up and loosen it a little

 

Take your vise grips and clip them on as tight as you can then try cracking it loose. Once you get it a couple turns you should be able to turn it with less tension. I've had to do it on drain plus half assed hacks rounded off or over tightened

 

Thinking I might have to use the mini torch to heat them up. I'm kind of hoping I can just get the nut off, put a new one on and reflare it so I don't have to buy 25ft of brake line only to use 3 ft. Or is it a good idea to just go ahead and replace the hard lines? I assume they're original.

 

Routing new lines can be a huge PIA, so check them to see if they are rusting out, if not nothing to worry about. You probably won't need a torch, when this has happened to me a good set of vise grips always got them to crack free. They are small enough that that's all it should take.

 

I'll see. The connection looks rather corroded, probably has never been touched. Not to mention when I got the car it didn't have a splash shield on the drivers side I believe, but I can't remember if that would protect it any or not.


Well I clamped on big vice grips and ended up getting it. However, where it was inside the soft line is all white. Should I cut it off and replace it (because of the corrosion) and reflare my line? Do you all think I'd be able to get away with just using it and tightening with vice grips?

 

so you use a tool that was not meant for that application, when it did not work out, you blamed it on the fact that it was made in china?

 

I justified cutting it because it was a cheap Chinese no-name wrench. I didn't say it was because it was made in China.

By the way, this 5.0 section is for fox bodies, not s197s. There's a 5.0 section specifically for the s197 5.0's