Hello all! I have a 1987 XJS that sprung a massive brake fluid leak just in front of the subframe cradle. I thank God the car was on stands while working on tranny parts when I noticed it! Emptied the resivore! Filled the res back up, started the car and pumped the brakes. No leak for a couple of minuets, then started dripping like coffee thru a coffeemaker! So, back on the creeper and under I go. Everything was nice and warm by then! The leak was coming from a brass tee that runs the hard lines to the rear calipers! Heres where it gets weird. Took the tee and rear hard lines off. The passenger line"lhd" is a nice pretty british racing green. The driver line is a dark olive drab. Passenger line has nice rounded convex line ends. Drivers line has double flare! There was no leak at the driver caliper, but the double flare into the brass looks awful! The flare is very distorted and the threads in the brass look none too good! Here is the leak! But, has a po mixed year calipers older or newer? Why the different type lines? Any help would be great! If You need more info, let me know! Thanks all!

 

Sounds like maybe the PO has mixed metric and non metric brake components. Are the 3 fittings at the brass tee all exactly the same?

 

The fittings yes, identical 7/16. Same thread and all. I picked this car up several months ago, and the PO said he went thru the brakes. They dont look touched to me. The main hard line in, as well as the passenger caliper line are a pretty green, while the problem unit is much darker. I suppose it is possible, a new line was fabbed using the old fittings, then "double flared" with a kit. The brass "tee" seats appear to be set up for the other fitting ends. One clue is the leaker, with the flare, had buggered up threads. Anyone look at the seat on the hard lines going to the rear calipers? I fear its time to drop the cage and check the rear brake setup.

 

Thanks Baxtor! Just saw the pdf! Pictures helped a LOT! The hard pipe matches the metric. The fittings and all other hoses are unf! Looks to me like a poor cobble! Now I KNOW I have to get at the brakes to look for other "treasures". I dont mess around when it comes to brakes! Great catch and thank you again!

 

The XJS non ABS brake pipe system of your year was, from the factory, a mix of metric and imperial fittings. I think, repeat think, that the T fitting you refer to should be all imperial threads. But when you get to the front calipers, the sizes change to metric. It is straightforward to buy a new T piece in imperial and get fabbed up a new piece of pipe to replace the bad one. But when you get to the front calipers, the thread sizes change to metric. It might, repeat might as I am not sure, be the case that the pipes to the front flexibles are metric on one end where they are fixed to the inner wheelarch and imperial the other.

Greg

Greg