2 days ago I was in my daily driver which is a 1989 pontiac firebird formula and the rear drivers brake line blew above the axle. My question is what size brake line is this. It looks to be about 1/8" possible 3/16". Went to advance auto parts today and they said you cannot buy the preformed and exact lengh line. They said I have to buy a straight piece and bend it my self and put the flares on the end. No big deal! I just need to know the size as mine are so rusted it is really hard to tell. ( Could the line be metric)

 

If you blew the hard line they are correct. You have to purchase the straight line, bend and flare it yourself. The best way is to remove your line and take it to the autoparts and match it up. Are your fittings O.K.?
You really need to investigate flaring tools and practice flaring a section of line.
Most likely the line was a double flare. Here is a tutorial on making a double flare:
http://www.carcraft.com/howto/50919/index.html
If it is a bubble flare, that would introduce a whole new set of issues.
The bending tool can be rented at the autoparts and is not really an issue.

 

Since there's not a lot of results on "General 67-02.....Tech", let's move it to "suspension, Chassis and Brakes".

 

Year One doesn't have a pre-bent line? I would go to Midas and ask them to get XX amount of line and flare both ends for your vehicle. You can then take it home and hand bend it over your axle.

 

The 93-97 cars use 3/16" for the steel lines. I would guess your 89 would too. If you want to order pre-bent lines you could try here. http://inlinetube.com

 

If you choose to make your own, rent the tools at Autozone. Especially do not bend the line by hand, you will put a kink in it. The bending tool is for rent, and is easy to use.

 

I guess I over looked that. Only seen suspension. Just finished removing the rear brake lines about 15 min ago. About 1:15 in the morning here. I figured that if I blew one line it's only a matter of time before the other one blows so why not change them both. Advance auto parts told me that it would cost less than $20 in parts. I would rather change it now then have it go out this winter. Now, advance told me that the lines can just be bent by hand. The post above said to use a bender. I will ask out that tomorrow.

 

I did this for a friend's van last year. When I purchased the tubing, they also told me I could bend it by hand. I rented the bending tool and it came out very nice, much better than I could possibly have done by hand. The rental is virtually free (you buy it and return it and get your money back) so there is no reason not to rent the tool and do it correctly.

 

Went to advance today and their bender was checked out. In fact they said it's been check out for over a week and they will not order a new one until 45days have passed. After that the individual who checked it out would then own it. I'm going to go to autozone tomorrow and see if they have one. There are many parts store's about 15 miles from. No time today.

 

Well, after a few days of frustration I finally got the new brake lines on and back on the road. No parts store could tell me what I needed as far as metric or sae. Went to the dealer and got everything I needed for less than $20. Maybe I will check with a dealer more ofter. There is a reason why people work at a part's store, and that's because they are not mechanics. Just my thought! For the record the brake lines were 3/16" with 10mm x 1.25thread. At the parts store's I asked them to pull either the hose or drum brake assy out of stock and see what line will thread in and they told me they could not do that. Sounds like someone didn't want to do a little extra work. This is really the first time I've had a problem with parts stores.