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Worst repair job I've had to do.

Kboomarang

New member
I just finished up replacing all the brake lines on my son's 2005 Chevy K1500 extended cab, Minnesota salt belt truck so it's a rust bucket, but has a super clean interior and runs like a champ @ 200,000. Anyway he's going a roadtrip this week and I was planning on giving it the once over, plus a oil change,new thermostat, belts, idlers, alternator which was causing the lights to have a light flicker at idle but was getting worse, so he called me Wednesday from work saying his brakes were acting up and pretty soft, I figured it was a line so Itold him top off the fluid and be careful or have it towed here if it's really sketchy and he nursed it over here, I took one look and determined they all had to go, luckly you can buy a kit where they come pre-bent, that was easy, getting all the old fittings loosened and removed was hard and time consuming as the ABS module is under the truck between the transfer case and the frame rail(stupid place), even harder was removing the old lines from all their many mounting clips, harder yet was fishing the new lines into position being they were installed on a bare frame at the factory, gonna bleed them today, everything else is done, over the years I've done everything in my garage that a shop does but that was the worst, so if you see a GM truck on Craigslist that says "just needs a brake line" beware! I do see plenty saying just that.
 

Kboomarang

New member
Good luck with the bleeders. They could end up being the worst part of the job if it's that crusty under there.
Bleeders were fine, and other than fishing the new lines, the worst part was the ABS module connections no room to get a good purchase on the fittings, secondly the body of it is aluminum which can get dicey with steel connections and I was also worried about pulling the threads out of it, they also had to go in and come out in order I managed all that though, and because the system was basically bone dry bleeding the brakes was giving me fits so I went to Harbor Freight and spent $25 on hand vaccuum pump bleeder set-up and that was a life saver, it's all done now, and it's my first and last time.
 
I don't know what gm was thinking, my 2008 was the same way. All the lines were rotting, along with the abs module mount being long gone. I ended up with a couple zip ties holding it up.

Whoever their fluid line supplier is sucks, my final straw was the fuel lines rotting out and just dumping gas everywhere....
 
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