The Stovebolt Site Forums The Shop Area Driveline Cleaning Old Brake line fittings

I am replacing the brake lines on my '57 6400 and I was planning to reuse the old brake line fittings. I was wondering what I can use to clean the fittings. I can use a wire brush on the out side but I wanted to get the inside clean also. Any suggestions is appriciated.

rifle brush, pipe cleaner, strip of shop rag torn & wadded up

Rifle brush, chuck in drill, submerge fitting and brush in solvent, run drill until clean. Fast , Easy.

But, hold the fitting with visegrips so it doesn't spin and beat your fingers up.

I hate to be the doom sayer here but ya got about a 90% chance that the inverted flare in the old fittings are probably crushed or distorted from the old Steel lines. There is a real good chance that if you put new lines on your old fittings your gonna end up with a leak. Do as you wish but if it were me I would also replace the brass.
Denny Graham
Sandwich, IL

I'm going to go with Denny on this. New fittings are cheap. About the only real reason for trying to save an old one is if it's an odd size fitting that isn't available on the aftermarket. Later GMs are bad about that on the MC and Prop Valve.
If you do want to try to save them, the methods mentioned will work, however, I would use a 6 point socket rather that vise grips to hold it. Less change of damaging the hex. Also, run a thread chaser or die over the threads to clean them thouroughly.

Ok thanks for the suggestions. I found another discussion on the board about fitting and I will try to buy new ones.