hi all i'm sorting out the felicia for the test next week and have run into a problem with the rear brake line on the driver side ,im trying to undo the flare nut on the axle connecting to the flexible hose,there is no space here at all for an ordinary spanner,may its just a case of purchasing a certain spanner,or do i have to drop the petrol tank or drop the axle, not sure which is going to be a bigger pain in the tit...hopefully someone here has done this before

Not sure if you need to do it (not sure about the spanner, and when I changed my lines I changed them all to run internally for obvious reasons), but dropping the tank is much easier than the axle - it's fairly easy. Dropping the axle would be an issue as there are alignment issues to take care of after doing so...

right never thought about alignment,just assuming tank would have to be emptied in order to drop

forgot to mention earlier,its a standard 1.3 front wheel drive petrol from 1997

you will need a proper flare nut spanner for the brake unions anyway, if you use a normal spanner it will just mangle them, they are only made of soft copper. If I recall it's an 11mm flare nut on those fittings but don't quote me on that! Measure it before shelling out on a spanner, I was in halfords the other day an I happened to notice they sell flare nut spanners for something like £7... And yes I confirm that they are a right royal pain up the hoop to get to as well.. You think that's bad then try replacing the pipe that goes from the master cylinder to the axle.

actually i have to do that as well ...all the brake lines on the drivers,they don't look to bad to me the nct here in ireland is a ******

right i have replaced all the brake lines on one side actually its not so difficult,that hard to reach flare nut on the back axle was opened with a spanner cut down to size to give enough room to manouvre behind the petrol tank,the long line from front to back is quiet easy really,undo the old pipe from plastic clips leave it dangle and then feed in a roll of the new copper pipe down through the engine bay underneath towards the back of the car,the pipe can then be pressed into the plastic clips next to the old one, and bent to shape, as you go, following the pattern of the old pipe. when run is complete ,pipe can be cut to length and flares done in situ...next i cut the old pipe in several places with a tin snipes to make it easier to pull out.... tighten up your unions bleed and yer good to go....an hours work if one is bit organised