Grab a drink & sit, cuz this will take a while...
I'm almost done replacing my brake lines, right now. My '97 4x4 had horribly rusty hard lines & hose connectors, so I replaced them all. Yup, rusted through & my brake fluid leaked at rear diff. Mine has rear ABS, not front ABS.
Overall, trickiest part is getting your arm inside all the tight spots to remove the old lines and to insert the new hard lines. The old spring-wound hard lines were difficult to remove from the plastic clips, but a flat screwdriver works.
Buy a 25-foot roll of Nickel-Copper alloy hard-line from Autozone, cuz you'll need ALL of it. That stuff won't rust, and is easier to work than stainless, and is DOT approved.
http://www.austinhealeywood.com/brakestory.html
It's so easy to bend by hand, and easy to flare with Autozone's rental double-flaring tool. I never did flaring before, but turns out it's easy
http://www.carcraft.com/howto/50919/index.html
WARNING: Ford used different size fittings in various places: 3/8"-24 SAE everywhere EXCEPT at the 4 wheels, and the 2 at MC, and 1 at RABS input side. And MC itself uses 2 metric BUBBLE flares, but everywhere else uses SAE inverted flare.
The brake fittings at all 4 wheels (ie, calipers & Wheel Cyls) are all 7/16"-24 SAE with "Inverted" (aka "double") flare. The 2 fittings at the MC are METRIC and have BUBBLE flare (not INV flare). The MC front hard line uses a 10-1.0 metric fitting (that's 10mm dia. with 1.0 mm thread pitch). The MC rear line uses 12-1.0 metric fitting (12mm dia. with 1.0 pitch). The FAR ends of both MC hard lines are different than MC ends (thanks, Ford), since the MC (metric/bubble-flare) front line ends at the LF hose which is 3/8"-24 SAE inv-flare (not metric, not bubble-flare) fitting. The MC (metric/bubble-flare) rear line ends at the RABS input which is 7/16"-24 SAE (not metric/bubble-flare) fitting. Mixed ends: go figure!
Tip: For those 2 MC lines, I bought a 60" and 40" pre-made Ni-Cu hard line w/ BUBBLE flare, and cut off the furthest end so I could INV-flare it. I can't make a bubble flare, so this worked.
The hard-line between 2 front hoses is tricky to run (my arm isn't U-jointed), but it uses 3/8"-24 SAE inverted-flare fittings at both ends. Yay! The 2 front rubber hoses came with copper crush washers for the (reused) banjo bolt at the caliper ends. But no clips. Awk! The metal spring clips holding on the front hoses are impossible to get from Ford, or anyplace else (local or internet). Ford said "discontinued". So I wire-brushed & painted them for reuse. They MIGHT (?) be Dorman #13987. The rear hose clip is Dorman #HW1457. Hard line from RABS (the RABS is underneath, by driver's feet) to the rear hose has 3/8"-24 SAE fittings at both ends. Best to remove the pickup box and drop the gas tank to run this long line. Hard lines along axles at rear hose use 3/8"-24 SAE fittings at HOSE ends, and 7/16"-24 SAE fittings at wheel cylinder ends. These 2 hard-lines are easiest to make & install, so start there.
Those plastic clips originally held a spring-wound hard line (1/4" OD), so the new 3/16" line is too small to be held firmly by them. So I used electrical tape, or some hard plastic tubing from Home Depot, to make the new line thick enough for the clips.
When I will replace my last hard-line, I'll need to bleed all brake lines, and also the RABS has its own bleed screw too (at its top front corner).
Tip: To remove all the OLD fittings, easy way is to snip off the hard-line, then use 6-point (not 12-point) socket to remove the fitting. This avoids stripping/rounding corners of the nut flats. I had to replace the rear WC cuz I didn't use 6-point socket for that bleeder screw. Lesson learned! Grrr.
Tip: A short 2"x4" pressing on brake pedal half-way will close MC ports, which avoids losing all brake fluid & leaking from MC reservoir when you remove MC lines.
I removed 1 hard line at a time, and shaped its replacement at the workbench. The 11-foot long line (to rear) was the only one shaped in place.
Overall, This is an easy, but loooong job. Along the way, I've learned a lot.
Here are my photos...
http://imgur.com/a/sUnMy
