decided to go with stainless calipers and new lines up front for right now
$$$ are limited question is what is involved with flushing front lines and what dot-? to use and why thanks :confused:

 

I just can't imagine a shark without stainless calipers allready on it, afterall everyone in the parts trade uses stainless lined calipers for sharks...including your local parts house...common item these days...
no such thing as an original system lasting 20 years....
so you probably have stainless lined calipers on your car now...just rebuild them with O ring pistons and leave the springs out...
done deal...I would use DOT 5 fluid also...does not absorb water so entire system will last longer....replace master cylinder with locak rebuilt unit....
get your parts from Vette Brakes....

GENE

 

Just took the original, never-sleeved calipers off my '81 a couple of days ago, and bolted up the rebuilt, SS-sleeved calipers from VB. Let's see, that would make my old calipers 21 years old, plus a few months...

They were leaking, or I wouldn't have replaced them. No big deal. Used the O-ring calipers from VB, $100 each (plus $50 refundable core charge).

I would use a turkey baster to suck all the old fluid out of the master, first. Then refill it with fresh fluid. I would not use DOT 5 fluid in my Corvette. You'd have to do a very thorough flushing of all lines, master cylinder, and all four calipers (that's 17 hydraulic cylinders!!!) to get the incompatible DOT 3 or 4 fluid out, and the DOT 5 is questionable, IMO, anyway. Just my $.02, but I think DOT 5 is for show cars that get stored and hauled to shows, not driven the way I drive mine. I use Valvoline Synpower DOT 4 fluid, period.

Spray penetrating oil on the connection between the flex line and the hard line at the frame, and hit it lightly with a torch to heat it up a little and spray it again. This was the biggest headache of the whole job for me, trying to get those flare nuts loose without ruining them. I did the spray & heat routine every day for a week, and it never did work.

Using the best flare wrench you can get, try to get that flare nut loose. I ended up grabbing mine with vise grips in order to get them loose, both of them. That ruined the nuts. So I had to cut about 3/16" off the end of the tube, put a new nut on, and reflare the tube. Not difficult, but a hassle. I was worried that I would twist the line getting the old nut out, or that I would split the line trying to flare it, but it all worked out just fine.

While the hard lines are separated from the flex line, they will drain by themselves. You can hook up a vacuum pump, like the MityVac I use, and really suck that old fluid through the lines in a hurry. As soon as you get clean fluid, you're done. Mount up your new SS calipers and hoses with new pads, bleed them, and you're done.

By the way, the VB SS calipers I got came with new SS bleeders. I had to remove the bleeders and put some grease on the threads, plus a gob of grease around the bleeder after I put it back in, to keep the vacuum pump from pulling air in through the threads on the bleeder instead of pulling the trapped air out of the caliper. Anyway, that MityVac is sure a slick way to do a fast, clean, bleed job without the need for an assistant to push on the brakes! :cool:

:seeya

 

Been using DOT 5 (Silicone) fluid since it originally came out.... over 25 years ago.

Have had absolutely no problems with it, and I drive my Vette just as hard as the next guy.
Brake pedal is hard as a rock, no fading or other problems.

1) I don't drive at 15,000 feet
2) I don't race my Vette on a circle track

I have two Vettes.... I recently removed some brake components from my C2 to refresh the 20 year old seals, and the DOT 5 was as fresh, clear, and clean as the day it went in.... I re-used it. The stuff is phenomenal. I am in the process of converting all of my cars (non ABS) to DOT 5.
Also... if you like your parts to stay painted & pretty & unrusty... DOT 5 does not eat the paint like DOT 3/4 does.

Just another honest opinion on the DOT3/4 vs 5 debate.

You say "po-tay-tow", I say "po-tah-tow".