fuel lines, brake lines and a sending unit

hello all,<BR>i've got 2 questions,<BR>i want to completely replace my fuel lines on the whole car. i can't find any company that sells them. i'd also like to replace all of the brake lines and cables but to no avail. <BR>the last is: how do you properly clean the gas tank sending unit?<P>in advance again, thank you<P>-will e.

Try this: email. (xxnos@oldbuickparts.com) WHERE THE XX IS TYPE THE YEAR OF YOUR CAR!!! You will receive a reply email with a catalog of nos car parts for your car. It only takes a couple of minutes. Follow the instructions about printing. I did it and got 26 pages of parts for my 61.

Will E.:<P>There is a company called Inline Tube.com.<P>They manufacture all types of brake, fuel, trans, etc. lines.<P>inlinetube.com 800/385-9452<P>If you have the talent and time, it may be less expensive to buy a hydraulic tubing bender, and the raw materials and fabricate all the lines yourself.<P>As far as the fuel tank, there are shops that will boil them out, and coat the inside with the proper sealers. You can get the sealing priduct form Eastwood. Some radiator shops will do this as well.<P>As long as you are taking the fuel tank down, new fuel sending units are available around $75. Even if you clean it up, it may fail in the near future. Change it now, and one less thing to worry about.<P>Buick Specialists, Bob's, and Cars, all have the senders.<P>Scott Mich<BR>Assistant Director<BR>Chicagoland Chapter<BR>1955-76C Roadmaster Convertible<BR>1959 Olds SS-88 Holiday Sport Sedan

thanks for the links but no dice on inlinetube. i didn't find anything for a buick before '64.<BR>and i didn't see anything on the NOS parts list from oldbuicksparts either.<P>how much would a hydraulic tubing bender cost and where would i get one?<P>i also bought the fuel tank repair kit from kanter, anybody have good or bad experience with this?<P>thanks again,<P>will<p>[ 03-23-2002: Message edited by: willbilly53 ]

The suggestion to go ahead and replace the gas tank sending unit is sound advice HOWEVER....if you do buy a replacement for it you have got to be extremely careful with these units. Like everything else that Buick built back in '53 the old ones are built sturdy with heavier metals. The replacements you get are very fragile in comparison. They work good it's just that you must really take care when mounting and connecting the wire to it. To much pressure on the nut that holds the wire on and you've trashed it.

As far as the brake lines - I would go ahead and form them yourself. You can use a manual tubing bender for bending the tubing. I tried flaring tubing from a roll (to get closer to the original length than pre-made tube sections) on 2 cars, and despite taking care, and having what I thought was a good tube flaring tool - I ran about 50% for all the connections - having to go back and reflare again after connecting, bleeding, and then putting the rest of the brake system together. Two big hassles was my limit. I finally broke down and bought sections of preflared tubing, using the old stuff as a template for length and shape. This made for some slightly longer lines - but I put some extra bends in them to take up the slack. Its not show quality - but cheaper than buying the prebent tubes and not really a big hassle either. Still looks pretty darn good. I've never messed with gas lines - so don't know how tough they are to work with.....

I would like to put in my 2 cents regarding the fragility of the sending units. My experience has been to the contrary. I have replaced our sending unit once and then removed it twice after due to a leaky float. I exercised caution but not to an extreme level when removing/installing the sending unit/wire nut and it worked/works fine. Maybe I was extremely lucky but I still have to say that the unit didn't seem quite that fragile to me. I guess what I'm trying to say is don't be afraid of replacing it as long as you exercise common sense; don't 'lean' on the wire nut with a 1/2" drive ratchet. <P>I too would suggest replacing the unit, (and from my experience, buy an extra float while you're at it - they're about $9 or so), as well as bending your own fuel and brake lines.<P>Cheers!

sweet!<BR>thanks all,<BR>so i'll replace the sending unit, <BR>buy some brake and fuel lines from inline and bend them myself.<P>does eastwood have a manual tube bender?<BR>are there different kinds, i.e. sizes for different applications? which one should i get?<P>thanks again,<P>will e.<P>

I got my bending and flaring tools from a local auto parts place. They're not that expensive at all. I think the bending tool was soemthing like $10 - $15 and the flaring tool was on the order of $25 or so.<P>Try this place also:<BR> <A HREF="http://www.classictube.com/frames/4/index.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.classictube.com/frames/4/index.html</A> <P>Good luck!

If you follow this link:<BR> <A HREF="http://www.classictube.com/frames/4/index.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.classictube.com/frames/4/index.html</A> <P>It will show you a complete brake line kit for $125 and a complete fuel line kit for $100 for your year and model car. Now that I saw this I would be inclined to recommend you spend the $225 and be done with it. At least you'll know they'll fit right and all that good stuff.<P>Cheers!

Spend the extra money for the pre bent lines.<BR>You will save a lot of time, skinned knuckles<BR>etc. If you have never doubled flared tubing before, you can make mistakes and spend a lot<BR>of wasted time.These lines are all pre bend with the spring wound guard and double flared.<P>palbuick@aol.com

thanks,<BR>i'm gonna go with the pre-bent stuff. this is my first restoration and i'm not that experienced and i want to do it right. and $225 for stainless steel brake and fuel lines is smokin'!<P>thanks everybody,<P>will e.

Glad you found the link for the tubing vendor. I hope things work out well for you in that respect and I know how much time you'll save by going that route (instead of manually bending things yourself).<P>Year One used to do rebuilds on fuel tank sending units for about $100.00 + freight and such. I'm not sure if they still do. Borg Warner used to have some universal sending units too.<P>In some cases, the aftermarket offered replacement floats (the brass ones that fit into a loop of sorts on the float lever arm). The other issue would be the strainer on the end of the pickup tube and the condition of the carbon resistor mechanism at the top of the sending unit.<P>For some of the later GM light trucks, they now service a level sensor as a separate part of the fuel pump module. It's basically the float and arm with the variable resistor at the top, plus the electrical socket to plug into the wiring. It might be possible to adapt that to an existing tank unit to replace an bad part. I don't know how the resistance value of the new part would interface with the earlier part, but suspect an inline resistor of the correct value might be needed to generate acceptable values for the older gauges to deal with. At least the theory would work . . .<P>Even if the earlier production sending units initially had robust materials and such, the years of condensation and such in the tanks could well reduce the metal gauge to much less than it originally was. Even if the newer replacements are flimsier, they might still be better than an older one that the corrosion has eaten away at.<P>Just some thoughts . . .<P>NTX5467