Reviews for Classic Tube JE1051 Pre-Formed Stainless Steel Brake Line Kit for 97-06 Jeep Wrangler TJ with Dana 35 Rear Axle, Drum Brakes & with ABS
Works and looks great
The parts were well marked and the comments from other customers helped with the installation. Time estimate was realistic. We did not have to remove the sway bar or the bumper as others had mentioned. We had to use both metric and standard wrenches so make sure you have both when you start. Glad we had fair warning on bleeding the brakes. It went much faster with two people to complete that part. We did use a floor jack and put the Jeep up on jack stands which helped a lot. Good quality parts.
Pretty simple to install. I removed my swar bar to make it simple but was able to leave the bumper on. There is some minor tweeking involved but that is to be expected. Make sure the lines are seated properly before you tighten them down, I had a few that were leaking and I had to redo them. Other than that this was a great install and I am happy that I will never have to replace these again.
My wife was driving our 200 Jeep Wrangler (w/anti-lock brakes) when she had a complete hydraulic failure due to a rupture in the original brake lines. I can't believe that Jeep doesn't use STAINLESS steel!! To her credit, she managed to bring the Jeep home safely, without damage to herself or the Jeep.
I decided to tackle this job myself. New Brake Lines, new Brake Hoses, and a new Master Cylinder. I consider myself very experienced with working on cars (been doing it since I was 16 - and I'm 68 now). But don't kid yourself, this is a tough job.
Thank God for the pre-bent lines, but you will actually have to straighten some of them out to feed them through the narrow passageways. I started with the rear line. Only one line goes from the Master Cylinder back to the rear axle. Working from under the Jeep (I do not have a lift - pity!), I fed this line in from the front of the Jeep until the part that bends up to go to the Master Cylinder was under the opening, and then fed that part up. The other end (at the rear axle) connects to the rear brake hose (yes, there's only one brake hose at the rear) and the other end of that rear brake terminates with a junction block. This junction block is weird. It's bolted to the top of the rear axle by a hollow bolt. Why hollow? Well, apparently the engineers decided that this was the perfect place to run a vent for the rear axle. Yes, that's right, the vent runs right through the hollow bolt. The top of the hollow bolt has a hose fitting on it, and the is a hose connected to it. I pulled this hose off and was able to loosen the bolt without incident. The brake lines (left and right side) connect to this junction block.
The left (driver’s side) line is the easiest of all to run. It pretty much runs straight down from the Master Cylinder to the wheel.
….And then there’s the front passenger-side line. This is by far the hardest of all. It runs down from the Master Cylinder, up along the driver’s-side frame rail, runs in front of the engine, and then back down the passenger-side frame rail, and finally down to the right-front wheel. So you have this giant U-shaped brake line that you have to feed in on both sides from the front. At least, that’s the way I did it. I first had to remove the front bumper and unbolt the sway bar. I propped the sway bar up with some 2x4’s. I then had to very gently “un-bend” some of the bends in the line, especially the 90-degree bend that goes up to the Master Cylinder. If I hadn’t done that, I don’t see how I could ever feed the line in from the front. This of course means that once you get some of the line fed in, you have to re-bend that 90-degree bend so the line can go up to the Master Cylinder. And keep in mind, this re-bending is not easy, since you’re working in very confined areas. I managed to do it, but it wasn’t easy.
As mentioned, my Jeep has anti-lock brakes. This makes it even harder since there are more lines to mess with. My one piece of advice (anti-lock brakes or not) is that when you connect the lines to the proportioning valve (just below the Master Cylinder), TAKE YOUR TIME. The threads on these fittings are rather fine and can be easily be crossed-threaded.
Another observation is it took some time to bleed the brakes. Since I was replacing the Master Cylinder, I first bench-bled it (look it up on YouTube). After putting that in the Jeep, I started bleeding the brakes. This took long since the lines were of course all empty. After the bleeding, the pedal was not right – very spongy. I guess there was still air in the lines that I didn’t quite get out. I bled the brakes a second time, and then everything was perfect. The pedal is solid, and the brakes work great. After all that work, it was a great feeling to have the Jeep back on the road.
If you try it, Good Luck!!!
Great quality replacement kit. These lines will last longer than your Jeep.
-They have the correct fittings on both ends of the line.
-The threads are correct, but you will need different sized wrenches vs OEM.
-You have to bend/tweak some lines to get them to fit properly, but should be self explanatory.
-The lines are labeled to where they go.
-if you have ABS, then you need this kit vs the non-ABS version. Some reviews on the other kit said it worked, but it was way off for me. (Not the correct bends, different fittings, etc)