I'm very much looking forward to the long detailed explanation of AN VS
automotive flares. I use a combination of hard lines and AN braided teflon
(aeroquip type) on the race cars, and use Girling/Lockheed type lines on the
street cars. Old british cars use two types of flares, depending on whether
the fitting is a male or a female. As Chris says, the type that looks like
a bubble is made by starting to do a double flare and just not completing
the second step of reversing the flare into itself. This type of flare is
used on male fittings. On the female type of fitting (often found where the
hard line attaches to the flex line going out to the wheel) the flare is
completed and you get a normal double flare. It's pretty intuitive once you
actually look at the fittings and the inside of what they attach to! Earl's
and Aeroquip both sell conversion fittings to take American automotive hard
lines and convert to AN for the flex lines, but you have to be careful
because while the fittings have the same threads as British, and screw in
just fine, what some times happens is the actual flares don't match up and
the connection is suspect. Same thing happens when you buy the pre-made hard
lines from the local auto store. The male fittings are 3/8" fine thread but
they're not as long as the British 3/8" fine thread male fittings, so they
sometimes can't go into the female fitting deep enough to make a correct seal.
t 04:58 PM 3/17/97 -0500, you wrote:
>Girling flares as used on older British cars are very similar to what
>are currently known as bubble flares. You can use a bubble flaring
>tool to make the ends for Girling fittings. You can also use
>a double flaring tool to do so - just don't complete the second
>half of the flare.
>
>I was going to resist, but I can't any longer - if you care about
>reliability in your braking system, rather than originality,
>and are going through the trouble to replace everything ... replace
>all the fittings you can with single flare AN fittings.
>
>I don't have time at the moment, but I will dig up a long and
>detailed rant about the whys and wherefores of this claims.
>Basically, the AN system is designed for long life and many
>make-break cycles - the double flare system is designed to produce
>a reasonably high expectation of sealing the first time, with
>no thoughts to make-break cycles. The double flare is
>a liability, and the design is such that it weakens every
>time you remake the seal.
>
>More later, probably tonight.
>
Brian Evans
Director, ISP Marketing
UUNET Canada Inc.
20 Bay Street, Suite 1910
Toronto, ON, M5J 2N8
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