Beware of Inline Tube products!!!!!!

[resq302]

Ok, now that I got everyone's attention, I figured I would share this with everyone.  Some of you may know that Inline Tube has been reproducing distribution blocks, hold off valves, and proportioning valves since around 2006.  I have read some people having issue with the hold off / proportioning valves for B bodys with disc brake set ups like myself.  Well, here is my story..... Back in 2006 when I was restoring my entire brake system back to factory 4 piston Bendix brakes, I needed a hold off valve (brass little t shaped thing that holds off the pressure to the back brakes for a split second so the fronts can engage first to prevent the back brakes from locking up causing a skid).  I saw that Inline had just started reproducing them and purchased one for around $65 or so (now they are down to $50) and installed it.  I bled out all the air in the lines after installing all new stainless lines and went to back the car off of the lift.  Car wouldn't move.  Cause- the rear brakes were locked up.  Bled out the pressure, went to back out again, same thing.  Seems like the hold off valve was actually acting like a one way valve and not letting the brake fluid return up to the master cylinder.  I called up Inline and complained and they said to send it back to them.  Now my charger is out of service with this missing part till they determine if it is faulty or not.  I ship it back to them, wait two weeks to find out they say there is nothing wrong.  They send it back at my cost cause they can't find anything wrong with it.  I install it and same problem.  I crack open the line before the hold off valve and there is no pressure behind it.  I crack open the line after the hold off valve and brake fluid sprays all over the place.  Seems like the problem is still there.  I call them back up now livid that the problem is still there and I am questioning their tests if they actually did anything.  They end up sending me another one that they said works and I have to send the old one back.  Well, 4 yrs later this same one from Inline is now doing the exact same thing.  This time I drove an hour away to my clubs judging seminar in Peapack-Gladstone and on the way there, smelled something burning.  I thought it might have been a oil drip on my exhaust and the smell was not bad and I did not see any smoke so I continued.  I get to the place and smoke is now billowing out of my rear wheels.  Burned up my brake shoes and really discolored my cast iron colored paint on my brake drums.  Since yesterday I have located an original and will be sending it out to have rebuilt.  That will hopefully be the last time that Inline will leave me stranded or have problems some place.

Just a warning to everyone out there so this doesn't happen to you.

[femtnmax]

When I talked with ILT couple months ago they said there were problems with some of their proportioning valves, and told me not to buy their valves until they sorted things out.  So I cleaned up and reinstalled my original valve.  Works good so far. 
Sorry to hear about your hassle. Can you find the correct year/matching part at a parts yard?  Our local parts yard has several late 60's early 70's dodges/plymouths. 

[resq302]

I actually found one on ebay off of an AMC with disc brakes and is the exact same thing as the Mopars.  Got that plus a dist. block (which will not fit my car) for $31.  Ive seen the hold off valves go for over $100 so I was lucky.  I also located a spare dist. block for my car off of ebay for $5.50.   

[bill440rt]

Wowee!! 

Could have been a lot worse, Brian. Brake fluid is highly flammable.

Thanks for the tip-off. I'm sure you know my experience with Inline as well. I won't go back.

[resq302]

Got home from work at 7 am and finally got a chance to toy around with the charger.  Pulled the rear wheels and as expected the paint on the drums is toast.... literally.  It was gray/brown and looked like a piece of lightly toasted bread.  The paint was simply powder on the drum now with blistering towards the center where the hub is.  There are plenty of material left on the shoes so I might just sand the glazing off of them and reuse them.  The drums are glazed up as well on the inside of them but nothing a lathe can't take off.  I will need to get more of the recessed plastic plugs where the adjustment hole is on the backing plate as the two on each side melted from the heat nicely.  All in all, I guess I lucked out as I just redid the entire braking system and have maybe 3000 miles on the car since then.

Bill, I was not aware brake fluid was flammable.  I just double checked my Prestone brake fluid bottle and no where on there does it mention that it is combustible or flammable.  Maybe because it is the Dot 3 Synthetic version?  I dunno.   The other small bottle that I have of it that is not Prestone does say Caution: combustible solution.  Maybe it depends on the manufacturer?

Either way, its just another headache and inconvenience.  I have better things to be doing other than redoing unnecessary stuff on the charger again.  I'd rather be playing with my daughters or reading to them.

[tan top]

   yes brake fluid !! well flammable   , that could of ended bad , glad to hear not much damage !!  , wonder what causes these pressure valves to turn into a one way valve    
seeing as the drums & stuff have got really hot  , would be an idea to check to see if the drums have warped!!
think i would pull the axle shafts & check the wheel bearing grease !!  also  , i'm nutts like that

[resq302]

   yes brake fluid !! well flammable   , that could of ended bad , glad to here not much damage !!  , wonder what causes these pressure valves to turn into a one way valve   
seeing as the drums & stuff have got really hot  , would be an idea to check to see if the drums have warped!!
think i would pull the axle shafts & check the wheel bearing grease !!  also  , i'm nutts like that

Well, I have replaced the axle bearings with the Green Bearings so they are sealed but I did noticed a little bit of the gray brearing grease or molly grease (whatever its called) on the hub side of the axle bearing but it was not that much.  Since I am having the drums machine, I am sure they will tell me if the drums are warped or not.  Being that they are fairly new drums, I doubt anything happened to them since they are still fairly thick.  I would also imagine that if they were warped or anything, I would have felt it in the brake pedal pulsating or feeling the car to a shimmy down the road.  Nothing like that was felt.  Also, on the way home my dad was following me just in case we had any other problems and he did not say anything about the car acting funny.

The only thing that I can think would be a cause of them turning into a one way valve is the quality of rubber they were using.  If the rubber deforms or swells with the brake fluid on there, then it could restrict the movement of the fluid going back.  Like I found out, after the car sits for a while, it has the fluid return to the front of the valve so it has to be with something on the return rate.  Maybe the rubber swells and now because it is cup shaped, allows the fluid to go through and does not allow it to spring back down far enough not allowing the full opening to let the fluid back at the rate it is supposed to be.  Id sure like to find a way to be able to do a bench test on this vs. an original one or one that is working properly to see what the rate of flow going back to the master cyl should be.

[bill440rt]

Yep, flammable. It's a petroleum product, so it's gonna burn.

It doesn't take much heat to blister paint (you can to it with a heat gun if you're not careful), but the fact that it's burned off at the center (hub) scares me. That's your rear axle seat. I would definitely pull the axles to check those bearings, and check your axle seals while you're at it. It's just rubber O-rings & a rubber seal, it won't take much heat to damage them. If the heat was excessive enough (you said there was smoke billowing out??), then there's a chance your bearings could very well be toast.

How would a sticking valve cause that?? 
Could there be another cause of this problem?

[resq302]

Doing some checking on brake fluid, it has a very high flash point so it is considered safe for use in vehicles since it is in a closed system. 

Bill, the hub of the drum did not have the paint blistered or discolored.  It was only the flat outside part where the brake shoes would be on contact (if you imagined the inner wall being gone and the shoes making contact with the outer area) that had the paint pretty much deteriorating to powder.  The area where it blistered is the outer edge where the drum makes the sharp 90* bend  going to the outer lip.  If the bearings were bad, I would have heard a growling like I had once before when I had a Green Bearing go bad.  So far, I hear no abnormal noises.  (knock on wood)   If the inner seal would have been damaged, I suspect that the gear oil would be leaking out to the Green Bearing and washing out the sealed grease in the bearings.  So far, that has not happend and no fluid seems to be leaking out.  I would imagine after having a total of 2 hours on the car since the incident, if it were to be doing it, I would see evidence of it by now.

The only reason why I think that the hold off valve is sticking is because of I had almost this very same thing happen when I installed the new repro hold off valve on back in 2006/2008 or so.  After I got the brake system totally reinstalled and bled out the brakes and pumped up the brakes before backing it off of our 4 post lift, the car would not move.  I put the car in neutral and jacked up the rear axle.  Rear wheels would not move and the parking brake was off.  Cables were loose.  Figuring I had the brakes locking up somewhere, I started doing a process of elemination, I cracked open the connections starting at the master cylinder working my way back.  If it dribbled out, it was not the problem.  Once I came to the front connection of the brass t hold off valve, the front connection dribbled out.  Tightened it back up went to the rear connection on the valve.  Cracked it open and fluid sprayed out all over the place.  (Mind you this is a brand new repro unit and shouldn't have any problems.)  Since that was the front most part of where the system went from being static to being pressurized without having someone push on the brake pedal, it was the culprit.  To double check this, I made a pig tail out of a small piece of brake line and installed it in place of the hold off valve.  Sure enough, the car moved no problems and brakes were nice and free.  The sticking valve somehow was letting fluid through but going in reverse back up to the master cyl, it somehow was not being allowed to return.  Maybe the shape of the rubber piston cup inside, I don't know.  Needless to say, it happened again to me, this time while I was driving.  The sad thing is that it seems Inline is aware of the problem and never made any kind of notification to the people who purchased this in the past.  Almost seems like a recall or safety warning should have been issued since I am not the only person to have had issues with this part.

[bill440rt]

Oh, I thought you said it was burnt at the hub. My mistake. Probably OK then, but it still might not be a bad idea to check.

Inline should do something about this. Not sure if they would, though. Part itself might only be warrantied for a year. Still, they should have a better grasp on the problem.

A wise man once said to me, "It's ONLY your brakes!!"

[resq302]

Oh, I thought you said it was burnt at the hub. My mistake. Probably OK then, but it still might not be a bad idea to check.

Inline should do something about this. Not sure if they would, though. Part itself might only be warrantied for a year. Still, they should have a better grasp on the problem.

A wise man once said to me, "It's ONLY your brakes!!"

Did he only say it ONCE cause he died in a crash cause he couldn't stop due to a brake problem?  

Bill, there may have been a confusion as I did say there was blistering towards the center where the hub is.  I probably should have said blistering between the wheel studs and the outer edge of the drum.  When I had painted the drums, I used minimal paint behind where the wheel would mount up because it would not be seen.  The thicker areas did not bubble but turned to dust.

[resq302]

heres some pics of what the results were:

[resq302]

melted plastic plug for shoe adjustment window

[resq302]

pic of the drums with the blistered and burned paint