Thread: ser 2a brake upgrade

this is why i plan to do the full brake upgrade, it already has an overdrive and wack on a supercharger!!! hoping that at some point in a quiet place for the first time in history an 88 becomes a blur

Until then im quite happy for the idiots to pass me on blind bends or where ever they decide to do it mainly because when they crash i will stop, point and laugh

Brings you back to an old fable really tortoise and the hare! If you know what i mean

Originally Posted by Lotz-A-Landies

There is actually thick walled copper brake pipe available in Australia. This is branded as brake pipe and perfectly legal.

Having grown up using "copper" (alloy) pipe for brakes, without ever having a drama, I'd prefer to use it. After various discussions, including Diana's comment above, I could reach no solid conclusion on it's legality in Australia.

After checking the government standards, I suspect that it just comes down to interpretation. The NCOP for Light Vehicle Modifications says, in section 2.4 "Component standards":

"Hydraulic pipes must be made from steel bundy tube complying with SAE J1047 or equivalent."

Does "or equivalent" mean a steel pipe to an equivalent specification, or does it mean an equivalent product to the stated steel pipe? If the former, then any pipe except steel is illegal (this includes copper/nickel alloy), but if the later then any material can be used providing the pipe is to SAE J1407. Hmmm.....

yes and no. By the letter what that means is any other standard that meets the same specification so you could use brake bunding as detailed in ISO spec for brakes providing it listed better stuff.

However under ADR's you can use anything that's approved and compliant for brakes. This includes the copper nickle alloy stuff provided its purchased from a supplier that is authorised to deliver it as a pipe suitable for use in braking applications. The true Irony of this is that you could walk into a brake shop thats situated right next door to a hydraulics shop and watch both the counter attendants cut a length from the same reel of piping and it would only be legal to use for brakes if supplied from the brakes guy.

You can still use the thick wall copper on a vehicle providing that it was what was fitted to the vehicle originally (or you can prove that it was available from factory in australia in that configuration) and that you havent raised the pressure thats being applied to the system (as in fitted a booster when it didnt have one to start)

The site that I normally goto thats got the ADRS ISO's and SAE's on it is no longer available so I cant get to it to provide the definative answer.