Rich, if you think about it, brass is softer than steel!, You’re tightening a steel nut and line into a brass seat. After the initial tightening the double flare on the steel line has been collapsed and it no longer has the ability to conform a seat is formed between the steel and the brass cone in the inverted flare fitting. If you remove the line and try to refit it you are trying to match the compressed steel double flare to an already deformed seat. It may, and I stress may, seat the second time and if your real lucky even a third time, but since the brass seat is now distorted it is hit or miss. If you look at the seat in the brass fitting you will see how it has been distorted and in many cases the inverted flare cone will be completely flattened out. If you are replacing the steel lines it’s really good practice to replace the brass inverted flare fittings also. And yes this can add a couple of hundred bucks to your brake job and that’s the reason why many people skimp on the brake job and try to use the old brass fittings. The components of this type of a joint are only designed to be made up one time and are not designed for disassembly and reassembly. The copper washer behind the banjo fittings can sometimes be reused if they are annealed but even there it’s a good idea to use new ones, they are the least most expensive part of the whole entire brake rebuild yet some people insist on reusing them.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL
