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Brake Pipes


After seeking advice from several sources (Caterham and the 7's list) I felt confident that I could fit the various brake pipes to the car.  The rears where the hardest as you had to take a straight piece of copper pipe and bend it appropriately to fit. After a number of measures and a bit of thought I started the bending procedure, the critical bit being that you do not put any really tight kinks into it that could cause a blockage or even worse a leak.

There are special tools to do this however I used an old coffee jar held tightly in a work bench. So I carefully bent the tube to fit. A word of warning that is stated in the build manual is that the threads at the end of each pipe are different so make sure you are bending the correct end. I put on the right pipe first and quickly added a Z bend to take it out of the t junction and onto the top of the de-dion tube. To aid in getting the bend s correct I then attached it to the t pipe.  Then with a lot of bending effort I put the required bends in and finally connected it up to the calliper, and then tie wrapped down.

Rear Brake Pipe RoutingThe manual is not clear as to where you should route the pipe.  The correct place is for it to come along the top of de-dion tube then go between the damper and the bracket that holds the trailing arm, it should then go under the trailing arm and then up into the calliper.  I had to create a rather complex series of bends on the drivers side to make it fit, however the end result looks good. The left hand side does not require as much bending put should be routed in the same way.

Attaching the front flexible unions was relatively easy, as soon as I worked out that I had to use a banjo bolt on the inside of the car to connect the in-situ pipes tot he external flexible pipes.  A banjo bolt is basically copper with threads on each end and a couple of lock nuts!  I also got the handbrake mechanism in place so it could be also connected up to the callipers.

I was really pleased with my work, however the next day I had a nagging doubt as to the routing of the pipes, but it turns out I was correct.

(click on the pictures for an enlargement all 640*480 and aprox 150K in size)

  Rear Right Brake Pipe Routing Left Rear Brake Pipe Routing Left Rear Brake Pipe Routing


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Copyright Rob Margel (C) 2001
Page Last Updated : 31/01/2005