Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

[James B.]

The rear steel brake lines from the calipers to the flexible lines are armored on 65 & 66s. Two parts suppliers (C Central and L I Corvette) only offer non armored lines for the 67 small block. Did Corvette drop the armoring in 67 or is this just another case of wrong repro parts? As far as I can determine the current 67 judging manual does not say anything specific regarding these lines.
Will appreciate help and advice, Jim Baker

[Mike E.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

Jim,
I just ad opportunity to look at a 30k mile 67 sb. It has the original rubber brake hoses, caliper, and lines, all removed and in a box for safe-keeping. Those original lines are not armored. The car is a mid-January build.

[Gene M.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

Jim,
I just ad opportunity to look at a 30k mile 67 sb. It has the original rubber brake hoses, caliper, and lines, all removed and in a box for safe-keeping. Those original lines are not armored. The car is a mid-January build.

Don't be surprised if you come across an Early '67 with the armor. I think GM was very reluctant to toss perfectly good parts........!

[Keith B.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

How early? I replaced original lines on a Nov car and it was not armored.

[Joe L.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

The rear steel brake lines from the calipers to the flexible lines are armored on 65 & 66s. Two parts suppliers (C Central and L I Corvette) only offer non armored lines for the 67 small block. Did Corvette drop the armoring in 67 or is this just another case of wrong repro parts? As far as I can determine the current 67 judging manual does not say anything specific regarding these lines.
Will appreciate help and advice, Jim Baker

Jim--------

The 1966-79 trailing arm brake lines were the same-----GM #3879235, 3879236. So, someplace along the way, the parts must have been revised to drop the armor. The 1965 brake lines were different----GM #3876501, 3876502.

In any event, the 1965-66 armored and 1967-79 non-armored lines are functionally interchangeable. So, if you want to use armored lines on a 1967, you could use the ones sold for 1965-66. Personally, I prefer the armored lines regardless of year.

By the way, does anyone know why the 1965-79 brake lines will not work on a 1980-82? Let's see if anyone can come up with the answer to this "trivia question".

[Gene M.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

How early? I replaced original lines on a Nov car and it was not armored.

First month of production, one of each, 1 spiral armor and 1 bare.

[Ralph E.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

Don't be surprised if you come across an Early '67 with the armor. I think GM was very reluctant to toss perfectly good parts........!

Gene, I have a very early 67, Aug. build, it has spiral armor. Always wondered why my car had the armor and others did not. THANKS.

[Gene M.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

Gene, I have a very early 67, Aug. build, it has spiral armor. Always wondered why my car had the armor and others did not. THANKS.

Ralph,
It is my opinion that a very early '67 is very common to have armor. Keep in mind GM workers were not going to sort out brake lines to use up the armor ones first. So it could be feasible to have a bottom of the bin part on some later built car. Let your car tell you its story rather than a manual, booklet or book. But understand the judging is "typical" for a given year, time build.

Bumper bolts is another instance of model year change over that seems to flow over with left over parts.

[Tom D.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

Every GM change order had a multiple choice checklist somewhere on the Change Request (CR) form. This was carried over the the Change Notice (CN) when issued:

"Use up the available stock of parts first" or "Scrap available stock of parts and implement ASAP" were only two of the multiple choices.

I don't remember the exact wording (it varied from division to division), nor do I remember what the other choices were. Even at model year change overs, the engineer/writer could select "Use up the available stock of parts first".

[James B.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

Mike Ernst, Thanks for the info, very helpful. Usually I take a parts suppliers opinions with a grain of salt but I have found that LI Corvette is pretty good. I called and they said armoring was deleted in '67.
Joe Lucia, Yes, I checked both my '66 and '67 assembly manual and found as you said that the part numbers for the lines are the same in both years, so they must have made a drawing change to delete the armoring but kept the same part numbers.

Thanks to all, Jim Baker

[Page C.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

I have attached 2 photos of a of a late March 1967 big block that was storied around 1969. It was purchased and cleaned around 2005 and is now a 5 star Bowtie car. It had the spiral armor of both rear brake lines.1967 left rear Bowtie car.jpg1967 rt.rear Bowtie car.jpg

[James B.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

Page, interesting, my friend/restorer thought they might have kept the armoring on big blocks because the bolt on the stabilizer bar link is so close to the line.

[Stephen L.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

My 67 April build BB had armored brake lines in the rear caliper area.

[Patrick H.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

While a different animal, evidence from 70-72s suggests that big blocks had armored lines while small blocks did not. That may be a possibility for 67s as well.

[Joe L.]

Re: Correct Brake Lines for 67 Small block

While a different animal, evidence from 70-72s suggests that big blocks had armored lines while small blocks did not. That may be a possibility for 67s as well.

Patrick------


After a bit of research I find that trailing arm brake lines were different for small blocks and big blocks and this difference dates back to 1966.

small block-----GM#3879235, left, and 3879236, right.

big block--------GM #3879239, left, and 3879240, right.

So, what was the difference between the above sets? Well, there would be no reason for any configuration difference so I expect the difference relates to the spiral armor.

Could small block cars have received the big block lines and big block cars have received the small block lines during the 1966-74 period? My guess would be that would have been extremely likely for something like these brake lines.