Building Custom Braided Brake / Clutch Lines

As I’m in the process of changing the standard clutch line on the Impreza (and will be doing the brakes also), I thought I would write a guide on how to assemble your own custom braided brake line / clutch line / fuel line / coolant line / oil line (or any other automotive braided pipe you could possibly want)

To start off with, I went to my local Pirtek, and picked up one of their catalog’s (this is also available online), and used this to decide what I would need to complete my task (All the pieces under the “Automotive” section in their catalog come direct from Goodridge – A well known braided line company)

Items I got for my Impreza’s Clutch Line (will also provide the Pirtek / Goodridge Code)

• 1 meter of 600 Series Hose (600-03CL) – Also available in different colours
• 1 x M10 x 1.00mm Fitting (442-31) – This will allow me to put the hose straight into the master cylinder
• 1 x M10 Banjo Connector (5092-02-03) – This will fit directly into the slave cylinder of the clutch

All the above connectors are re-usable connectors, which means they can be taken off the pipe and used for something else. It is possible to get other connectors that crimp onto the pipe but Pirtek didn’t have bits small enough to do this, and I like to build things myself.

So now I have your parts, how do I put them all together?! – Well, its quite an easy process.

First you will need to cut your hose to length (unless you ordered the correct amount of tube). This can be done using a junior hack saw (REMEMBER – If you have hose without the PVC coating on, you will need to use some electricians tape around where you are going to cut, to stop the braid going everywhere… ALSO do not use tin snip or anything similar, else it will squish the inner PTFE pipe).

Now that you have your pipe to length, and if you have the PVC coating on the pipe, you will need to cut a bit of the PVC coating off to allow you to fit the collar over the braid (does not fit over the PVC coating) – I lined the collar up next to the pipe and cut a little bigger off (roughly about an inch or so)

This bit can get a little painful (if you get a shard of braid in the end of your finger) – You need to get the collar over the top of the braid (I had to use a flat head screw driver to bend the braid down a little so I could get the collar on)

Now you will need to push the braid back a bit (around 5mm or so) to allow you to push the little brass olive / compression ring over the top of the PFTE inner pipe. (I did this with a flat head screw driver)

Get your little brass olive / compression ring, and push it over the top of the PFTE pipe (you may need to push on / tap the olive to get it to sit all the way over the inner PFTE pipe) – Make sure it is seated correctly, and all the way over the pipe

Finally insert your end connector into the hole in the middle of the olive / compression ring, and move your collar up and start to thread the end into the collar (you can put your end connector into a vice and using a suitable spanner tighten up the collar to allow the PFTE / Compression ring to seal the connector)

I hope this guide will help someone, and show you how easy it is to create your own custom hoses. This may not be a cheap option compared to copper pipe and a flare tool, but this sure as hell looks better, and personally gives the pedal a much firmer feel