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This morning I continued what I began last night, removing more of the hard lines the connect controls on the body to the power train and/or frame.

I started with the brake lines. Hard (metal) lines connect the master cylinder to the wheel area, where soft (rubber) lines connect to the brakes themselves. As the hard lines are connected to the body, the point where they join the soft lines is an ideal spot to eliminate this union. I used a 7/16" box end wrench to loosen the coupling on the hard line and a 5/8" wrench to hold the coupling on the soft line from turning. I had to use some Liquid Wrench and a lot of persuasion to get the couplings apart. On the left side there was actually a different upper coupling and I used a 9mm wrench because the 7/16 was a bit too big.

I took the caps of the master cylinder brake fluid reservoirs to allow the lines to drain more freely. You can see how dark and dirty the brake fluid was!

Then I moved on to the rear brake lines. Actually there is one hard line that goes back to the center of the car, and then connects to a soft line that connects to another hard line that runs side-to-side on the car, feeding brake fluid to each wheel's drum brakes. I disconnected this first point where the hard line meets the soft line. It was not easy to access.

I jacked-up the rear of the car and put jackstands under the frame on the right and left sides. Then I slid under the car just ahead of the left rear wheel. Even when using jackstands I am always careful to prevent putting any body part under part of the car that could fall to the ground.

Below are two pictures of the connection I was working on. In the first you can see the leaf spring in the foreground. In the second one, which was shot after I sprayed on some Liquid Wrench, you can see the differential in the background. I used a 7/16" wrench on the top coupling, attached to the hard line, and a 3/4" wrench on the bottom coupling attached to the soft line. I had to use a pair of vice grips to break the top one loose. Eventually it came off after a lot of turns. Next I moved on to the clutch line. The master cylinder had a steel line that I followed down below where the oil pressure line connected (see post dated #2 July 2005#). You can see the clutch line below left, it is the dirty connection below the already-disconnected bronze oil pressure line. I disconnected the clutch line similarly to the brake lines, using a 9/16" wrench. I reached in from below to access the coupling because I couldn't get at it from the top. Still, my view of what I was doing was obscured by the frame. As I did with the brake lines, I used a small drip container to catch the draining fluid. The clutch cylinder drained entirely. I also disconnected the emergency brake cable at a connection about midway down the car on the passenger's side. I disconnected the lower, front cable from the assembly using a 7/16" socket to remove the outer nut and a 7/16" wrench to hold the longer inner nut from spinning. Then I unbolted the longer inner bolt using the socket. I used a 1/4" box wrench to hold the flat portion of the cable-rod from spinning as I removed that nut. I believe that takes car of the hard connections between the body and the frame.