I am working on the brakes on a 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT V6. I pulled the front brake line to replace it and I am struggling to get the new one into place. Not able to find a diagram or picture of the routing of the brake line, Could someone confirm that the driver's side brake line as it goes from the proportioning valve through the floor of the front trunk on its way to the front brake hose goes through the rubber grommet at the trunk floor and then AROUND THE RADIATOR HOSE AND THE FRAME on the way to the bracket that holds the rubber brake hose. I have seen what I think is a picture of a 84 and an 88 and it does not appear to confirm this.

See the 1987 Pontiac Fiero GM Service Manual on page 231
https://fieroinfo.com/manuals/

I found this photo on the internet

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Original Owner of a Silver '88 GT
Under 'Production Refurbishment' @ 136k Miles

it appears the picture is a 88 and I have seen what appeared to be an 84 and the it appeared that the 84 went between the frame and the radiator pipe and then in this case in the 88 it looks like it goes around the pipe and the shape that I see in the above picture is consistent with the shape that I have here now and also what I have seen in the pics of lines for sale at the fiero store and the website inline brakes.


thank you for the link to the manuals as there were more there than I had up to now.

I always want to go with the original configuration as often as possible unless there is a good reason to do otherwise. I wonder what would matter since the line is inches away from a radiator pipe, not ideal either way and possibly one more instance where they might have been in too much of a hurry to get this car out the door so to speak

can anyone think of a reason it would matter either way of going around the pipe or between the pipe and the frame ?

The cooling tube routing in the picture is pre-88.

There are no cooling tubes in that area on an 88.

quote Originally posted by Signupacct: I am working on the brakes on a 1987 Pontiac Fiero GT V6. I pulled the front brake line to replace it and I am struggling to get the new one into place. Not able to find a diagram or picture of the routing of the brake line...

I suspect this photo of my '86 GT taken years ago with the tub out should show you exactly what you need to know. It appears to be the same configuration as in the image above, which for some reason you believe to be of an '88.

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 09-02-2024).]

Ok

I want to thank all who responded and helpful were the photos

Before I move on with this I just thought to take a moment and wonder if it was and is a good idea to have the brake lines (three of them) so close to the radiator pipe.

This seems to not be such a good idea. The radiator pipe can get as hot as 225 F and that is a good chunk of the boiling point threshold for brake fluid 3.0 and 4.0

Already you have a longer stopping distance from 50 to 0 mph and 70 to 0 mph and members including myself complaining that they can't lock up the brake even when standing on the pedal hence the S10 booster upgrade and the corvette and lebaron etc upgrades.

Has anyone considered this configuration and has anyone suggested some way to address it ?


Joe k

The coolant tube near the brake line is from the engine to the radiator, is uninsulated and runs the length of the rocker panel.
I doubt it gets anywhere near the boiling point of brake fluid which is over 350 degrees.

It's not an issue that has ever come up in my 20+ years on the Forum, or in my 30 years of beating the crap out of my several Fieros.

[This message has been edited by olejoedad (edited 09-03-2024).]

quote Originally posted by Signupacct: it appears the picture is a 88 and I have seen what appeared to be an 84 and the it appeared that the 84 went between the frame and the radiator pipe and then in this case in the 88 it looks like it goes around the pipe and the shape that I see in the above picture is consistent with the shape that I have here now and also what I have seen in the pics of lines for sale at the fiero store and the website inline brakes.

That is a 1987 Fiero SE / V6 with an automatic (was), not an 88. I know because it's a picture of my car: https://www.pontiacperforma...7FieroSE_Brakes.html

So, that should be identical to yours... as a 1987 Fiero GT. They are stainless steel lines from the Fiero Store. When they ship them, there's a couple of points where they bend them, and you just have to bend them back to match. It's kind of a pain, but ideally you'll want to lay the old line down and match it up with the new line.

For the record, it was a lot of work to bend those hoses into place so that they fit like that. They are very high quality, but need a little finessing.

quote Originally posted by Signupacct: I always want to go with the original configuration as often as possible unless there is a good reason to do otherwise. I wonder what would matter since the line is inches away from a radiator pipe, not ideal either way and possibly one more instance where they might have been in too much of a hurry to get this car out the door so to speak can anyone think of a reason it would matter either way of going around the pipe or between the pipe and the frame ?

I'm the same way, and original configuration is really important to me (to an extent). In this case, I matched up the lines I took off (which were still good) with the new lines from the Fiero Store. That is my high school car, and I'll keep it for as long as I'm able to drive a car (which ideally is still another 40 years, but we'll see... haha). I made sure that everything came out as perfect as possible...




And if you notice the clutch master cyl, and say... "Hey, you said it was an automatic?" That's because I was in the process of converting it to a manual, and I also installed the third pedal and a brand new stainless steel clutch line in the factory location (using Harbor Freight isolator clips).


As for the routing... I have to think the reason they did this is so that, should you need to remove the drivers side cooling pipe, you can still do it without having to cut or dramatically remove anything. I remember that on our cars, there's one cooling pipe which doesn't come out as easily... but for both of them, you SHOULD be able to remove them without disassembling the cars.

quote Originally posted by Signupacct: Before I move on with this I just thought to take a moment and wonder if it was and is a good idea to have the brake lines (three of them) so close to the radiator pipe. This seems to not be such a good idea. The radiator pipe can get as hot as 225 F and that is a good chunk of the boiling point threshold for brake fluid 3.0 and 4.0

I definitely wouldn't worry about this. The brake (by the brakes) can get much hotter, and the cooling pipe on my car has never gotten to a temperature where I can't simply put my hand on it for a few seconds. We were just talking about this in another thread. The Fiero has 14+ quarts of coolant, and by the time it's going down that tube, it's already cooling down significantly, even before it gets to the radiator. The lines shouldn't be touching... you'll have to bend them a little bit (as I mentioned above). Again, if you still have the originals use those as a template. They should match.

[This message has been edited by 82-T/A [At Work] (edited 09-03-2024).]