Hi all, looking for some community thoughts here...
The front brake hoses in my Speedster are rubbing on the tie rods. My mechanic says this is pretty serious as this is likely to wear through the hoses, but the builder says this is normal & nothing to be concerned about.
Would love to hear opinions from others, and if anyone else has noticed this & is concerned?
Thanks!
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Maybe the wrong length hose and or a 45 degree fitting at the caliper will offset the hose... mechanic person should be able to resolve that .
Do what you want, but I would follow Dr. Clocks advice ASAP and shorten them so the don't touch or rub anything.
The other side of going is stopping and I personally don't tempt fate.
What does it look like when the car is on the ground?
Oooh good question @Carlos G I'll check when I get it back
Empi or AC industries wide 5 disc brake kit all have the brake hose in that location, has been that way for a very long time.
Greg
also the hose moves simultaneously with the tie rod.
Greg
Thanks Greg! Learned something.
Maybe on the wrong side of the tie rod? If they were suppose to be under there would had been a 45 or shorter hose I think.
The brake hose has a fixed attachment point on the chassis and the caliper moves down when the suspension droops, changing the relationship of the hose to the spindle. I'd guess that it has clearance when at ride height. That said, we make a banjo bolt braided SS brake line with a 90 for added clearance. not that it is necessary, but this is a common question we also get from shops...
Where are the brake hoses attached on the pan? I would suspect either too long of a hose or the routing of the hose is incorrect. Below is a picture of my car with an AC Industries disc brake kit. There is plenty of clearance on each side.
Thanks for everyone's responses! When it's on the ground, the hose is still touching (see attached pic). You can feel and see where the hose is already starting to wear after only 600 miles. Looks like it's attached to the pan in the usual place.
Looking at the instructions for the EMPI kit, it says:
"Once installed turn the steering right and left, lock to lock to ensure that the new brake hose does not interfere with any moving parts and that the line is long enough to achieve lock to lock turns."
Looks like this wasn't done on my speedster 
The hose should be positioned to fall below the tie rod .
@Alan Merklin Thanks for that last photo. How does the hose come out of the caliper there? On mine it comes straight up - does your come out horizontally or do you have a 90 degree elbow in there?
@Matthew Butt posted:Thanks for everyone's responses! When it's on the ground, the hose is still touching (see attached pic). You can feel and see where the hose is already starting to wear after only 600 miles. Looks like it's attached to the pan in the usual place.
Looking at the instructions for the EMPI kit, it says:
"Once installed turn the steering right and left, lock to lock to ensure that the new brake hose does not interfere with any moving parts and that the line is long enough to achieve lock to lock turns."
Looks like this wasn't done on my speedster
In the meantime, some nylon spiral wrap might protect the hose.
Hello,
The pictures posted by other members here are not the same brake kit you have on your car so these pictures are mute. We have used this brake kit with hoses installed the same way for the last 20 yrs and have never had a front brake hose failure. You can upgrade to a stainless steel braided hose and different fittings to reroute the brake hose if you feel its needed.
Greg
Personally, @Matthew Butt, I wouldn't like anything to do with my brakes rubbing on anything else to potentially fail and I think you're right to be worried. Greg is right, too, that we as a group have a number of different hose configurations - My hoses connect horizontally into the caliper, for instance, so what we did might not be for you.
I would suggest that you contact Carey Hines at Beck/Special Edition
and ask about those 90º brake banjo fittings for the calipers to get the hose pointed to the side of the caliper, rather than up as it does now. You might need slightly shorter flexible hoses, or not, depending on how they look with the new fittings (Carey might have those, too), but re-directing the hoses so they're not rubbing anywhere is the way to go. Good luck on your solution.
I have the AC Indust. 5 lug brake that use Rabbit calipers with the inlet pointing up. I had to use the Earls adapters and Russell hose with a 90 end. You can see what it looks like from my pictures. It's been like this since 2013 and no rubbing or any problems thru the entire range of motion.
Thanks @sherco_chris! Do you use those adapters just at the caliper end? eg caliper -> adapter -> brake hose -> metal brake line -> cylinder?
Adapters on both ends of the hose because of the an -3 fittings.
Got it, thx!
@sherco_chris You might want to check your crush cage on your steering shaft for cracks on a regular basis, just to be on the safe side. Those have been known to fail, especially if one has a tendency to drive in a sporty fashion.
Thanks @Carlos G! I've seen a few of the broken ones and that can't be good!
Chris
It’s interesting that after around 1970 VW moved the crush cage from the bottom of the steering shaft to the top between the steering wheel and the dash. I guess someone realized that they were rusting and failing prematurely down lower and that they would live longer (the cage and the driver) if they were better protected inside of the cockpit.
To see the stress cracks at the welds the cage needs to be sand blasted....unless actually fractured within the cage webbing itself. I've concluded the very sudden fractures I had on two speedsters - (in my driveway and loading on a trailer) was caused by a previous owner forcing upward pressure during installation of the column to horizontal 2 x 2 dash cross member bracket. 
