Junkyard Source for Brake Unions

I haven't crawled under any cars to check on this yet, but does anybody know of a common source for brake line unions in a junkyard. Specifically looking for metric 10mm x 1.0 unions (for a miata, of course). I image most OEMs probably want to avoid their use, but figured I'd check and see if anyone had some tips before ordering some. I'm going to the junkyard for some other parts anyway, so it would be quick and easy to grab these.

This is what I had in mind:

Thanks.

Any decent parts store should have them for a buck or two.

+1 just buy them new. It's a brake part.

Yup, parts store

Gah! You guys are killing me.

It's a piece of brass. It doesn't go bad, and I need 4 of them which is $16 at the local parts store vs. free at the junkyard.

In reply to JohnyHachi6:

What's your time worth?

I bet you could earn more than $16.00 in the half a day you spend at the junkyard fighting with siezed brake hardware.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

I'll just cut the brake lines near the fitting and bring them home where I can oil them and take them apart in a vice. If I'm at the JY already it's not a big deal.

Also down here in Atlanta, there's pretty much no such thing as seized brake lines. At least, not like I'm sure there is in Canada.

Seriously, it's $16.00?

Be real grassroots and skip the Starbucks for a couple days to put new parts on your car.

In reply to Trans_Maro:

In some places, saying "Skip the Srarbucks" will get you shot.

So the time and effort of crawling under nasty ass old cars to remove fitting that dont really exist in factory configuration, in a part of the country where brake lines rarely rust out and get changed involving unions, that is, an impossible mission, is worth less than $16 to you?

^this.

I've never seen those in a factory setup. The mfgs always use full length lines that are made to fit in once piece.

We don't even use them in repairs, just replace the whole section. It's just one more place for a failure.

Shawn

look under full size pickups... they have longer brake lines going to the rear than may be feasible from a manufacturing standpoint..

also- there is always a good reason to go to a junkyard, whether it's actually "worth your time" to get something like this.. part of the fun of junkyard crawling is finding things you didn't even know you were looking for.. i found the 8.5 rear axle for my Nova when i was looking for a good dash bezel for it- the rear end had literally fallen out of a 73 Nova onto the trunk of the car below it and they let me drive my truck back there to load it up and they only charged me $50 for it... about a year later, i found a set of brand new 5 leaf leaf springs in the trunk of another Nova when i was walking around out there looking for something else that i can't remember right now... i didn't know what they were actually for or how they would make my car sit, but i figured it was worth $50 and they made the car sit perfectly and handle like a race car..

Ran into some of these the other day, so for those like minded souls who are trying to make the most out of their project car budgets, the mid 90's Lexus LS400 has a bunch of these in the engine bay. They are steel, not brass. One is located just below the brake master cylinder and there are two on the lines between the ABS pump and the firewall. They all have little tabs welded to them to bolt to the firewall/inner fender which is nice.

JohnyHachi6 wrote: Gah! You guys are killing me. It's a piece of brass. It doesn't go bad, and I need 4 of them which is $16 at the local parts store vs. free at the junkyard.

it doesn't "go bad" but it deforms to the first tube flare to which it is mated and, when used with a different tube later in life, the torque required to get a good seal may be higher than the tear-out torque of the threads. at that point you throw wrenches, spit and curse, then get your dirty-brake-fluid-covered ass into SWMBO's car and go to NAPA and buy some new ones anyway.

In reply to AngryCorvair:

Never had that problem on any brake lines that were flared properly. Also, the ones on the LS400 are steel, so I'd expect that to be a non-issue.

Definitely not what someone's going to want to do on their mega-buck build, but I think it's a reasonable way to go for a car on a challenge budget.

It doesn't matter if you're at the JY "already", you still have to lay with spiders and snakes that I KNOW are there by the dozens just to get really cheap parts?

And I thought I was cheap! Plus, in the event this plan works out, the torque required to remove the piece of steel brake line from the brass will most likely turn that old piece of brake line into a metal braid and render itself impossibly stuck as you twist it right off at the very end of the union!

You have clearly never been to a junkyard in Atlanta; it's a like a K-mart

I would agree about the brake line if I were still in the northeast, but in the south, 30 year old brake lines are basically still like new.

Also, I can't believe how much resistance there is to this idea. If any of you guys ever wanted to win at the GRM challenge, you have a long way to go. If you're spending $16 of your budget on brake unions, you probably won't even have a running car for $2000.

I can see your point, and heck, if you don't mind spending whatever time and effort, then who cares right?

I'd go with 80-96 F-Series trucks and Broncos. Just ask me why I say that!

(By the way, have you ever seen the snakes and spiders under the shelves at a K-Mart?!?!)

I'm with you, I just have no idea where to find them.

mr2peak wrote: +1 just buy them new. It's a brake part.

Good luck. For some reason, nobody seems to sell metric double-flare unions anymore. SAE double-flare, sure. Metric bubble-flare, no problem.

I want to bypass my prop valve without stringing a bunch of new lines, but still can't find the unions to do it.

Trans_Maro wrote: ^this. I've never seen those in a factory setup. The mfgs always use full length lines that are made to fit in once piece.

Not always. Plenty of times they will use 2-piece lines, either to mate common cab parts to frames of varying wheelbases, or ease of assembly for things like rear subframes, getting the brake line to the opposite side of the car from the line rack.

But they're generally not unions, they tend to be one male and one female fitting.

We don't even use them in repairs, just replace the whole section. It's just one more place for a failure.

Also, lines strung by mating a bunch of 60" pieces are usually strung VERY poorly. I've re-strung a bunch of cars that were hacked like this. My favorite was the one with line ziptied to moving suspension parts AND wrapped around the exhaust pipe near the engine.

Unions in brake lines are like chrome spinner hubcaps. If you see it, you know the car is going to be 18 feet of horribly executed repairs.

This is a much tamer version of a discussion that got me banned from the local car forum, except I was trying to rent a lift for 50c per minute...for a 5 minute job

The other difference is that it would have actually been a good deal for me