Repair or Replace a hard hydraulic line

[Cle Elum John]

Questions pertain to a 1968 450() with a Drott 4in1 front end. One of the hard hydraulic lines going to the clam shell on the 4in1 caught on something and fractured. These are 1/2" ID rigid metal lines. There appears to be a braze or solder repair near the fracture. I can probably salvage the fittings from each end of the line. Are the fittings brazed or silver soldered to the tube? I was thinking about cutting out the damaged area and repairing with a section of new tube and some tube-to-tube splice fittings on each end. Are those kind of tube-to-tube fittings available and from whom? Do they have a common name? The tube material appears to be steel. Does anyone know what kind of steel? If I were to fab a new one from end to end I would have to bend it in 4 places. One is a 90deg bend. Is the tube easy to work with? It is about 8ft long. It is a 2500 psi system and the material is pretty thin.

Is this the kind of thing that a reasonably good hydraulic shop can fab at an affordable price. I keep having sticker shock whenever I get work done. But still, is that a smarter way to do the job?

Thanks for any help
John

[Jim B]

The fittings are likely attached with silver solder or similar. It should be a seamless tubing rated for hydraulic pressure service. It may be thin, but it does not bend easily, and the proper tools should be used for bending to avoid crimping/restrictions in bends. No offense intended, your questions show you are not familiar with the process and don't have the tools. I was involved in overseeing tubing installations for pneumatics and hydraulics in industrial plants in years past and to me bending tubing correctly is an art. Not all hydraulic shops stock and bend the tubing and fittings. You need to find the ones in your area that do and talk with them. It is possible they might be able to splice a section in your tube. Sometimes compression fittings can be used.
You will need to find out what sources there are in your area are talk with them. And if they do bend tubing, they may want the machine available to get the correct fit if the damaged tube is greatly distorted.

As a guess, you will likely have less cost (and time) in using hose than having a new tube made, even if you have to add some protection for the hose in some spots. It would cost a bit more but evaluating the place(s) the hose might get damaged you could have a short hose in those areas to reduce what has to be replaced if damaged in the future.

Neither way is going to be cheap. The only true way to know the best way and cost, is to find out what is available in your area and get quotes from the places that can do that type of work. Just my thoughts, others may have better info.
Jim

[boaterri]

I have had hard lines with a fracture braised with good success. If the line is not seriously mangled, a crack is an easy fix.

Good luck!

[Cle Elum John]

Thanks for the help. I will probably just replace it with a hose. I spent the morning trying to find a local supplier who was willing to sell a piece of repair tube and some splice fittings. It shouldn't be this hard. My go-to hydraulics parts store shut down a few months back. The fracture involves some mechanical damage and I don't want to put that part of the tube back in service with just a brazed fix.

No offense taken Jim. I have a tools, a hydraulic tube bender and am capable of brazing/soldering fittings. Just can't find the replacement parts.

Thanks to all.
John

[Jim B]

Good that you have the tooling, and glad my comment was not offensive. We had hydraulic benders, ratchet benders, bending tables, etc. I have encountered too many who thought they could just bend this type of tubing like brake tubing from a parts store.

Web search for Swagelok and Parker dealers in your area, those were the primary ones we used. The mills here used stainless for the most part but Swagelok and Parker have steel tubing and fittings as well. McMaster Carr sells tubing as well, search steel tubing. Compression fitting are more like readily found that solder/add-on fittings, Any industrial/mechanical (HVA) contractors around you? If so you might ask if they have or know outfits that do that work.

Wishing you good luck with it.
Jim