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The James399 5 piece SS line review thread

3K views 25 replies 12 participants last post by  james399 
#1 ·


The quality of these lines is off the scale. I've seen and installed (on other cars) many other brands. Goodridge lines, Mazdacomp's lines, etc. James' lines make any others I've seen look like poor quality knockoffs. For real. They're amazing.

How do they work? I have no idea. But they LOOK and FEEL incredible.

I'll not get a chance to install these for a few weeks. Got friends coming into town and a project to drywall and finish my garage in the works.


Anyone who has a set of these lines, PLEASE contribute to this thread! Other boards that I'm on have review sections like this where many users contribute info and pix about a single product, and I'd really like to see something like that happen on CR. And these lines seem like a great place to start! I'll post my install pix later as well, but for now, please post any info, reviews, and pix here.

Go! And thanks again, James.
 
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#2 ·
i just have the clutch line...at some point I will need to go to their brake lines, cause theyre way doper than the ones i have now.

i know the great lengths james has gone to to make sure you guys have the best stuff possible...and the price is still comparable to any of the other ss lines....these are a no-brainer.
 
#5 · (Edited)
Clutch Line:






Passenger Front:







Passenger Rear:







Driver Front:






Driver Rear:






Banjo Fitting Closeup:


Distro Block Closeup:


Flyin Miata:

 
#10 ·
Visually they look awesome. I haven't had a chance to install them, I was going to wait til I get the BBRK but I don't know when that will be...

One question, do the "conversion" fittings come pre-tightened?
 
#11 ·
**thanks crxican for the pictures**
do a search over on turbo miata, and there is some discussion about the installation etc...

if you are not sure of what you are doing... DO NOT **** AROUND AND GET THEM PROFESSIONALLY INSTALLED.... DON'T **** WITH YOUR BRAKES!

Roadstertuner and i are working together on this group buy, so if you have questions please feel free to ask him or me, and or post here...

also for the (socal people) roadster tuner is offering cheap installtion at 80 dollars (40 off the normal price of 120 and includes fluid etc)

A couple of things about the installation....

1. MAKE SURE THAT ALL THE LINES AND THE BANJOS ARE IN THE CORRECT ORIENTATION...

2. MAKE SURE THAT ALL THE LINES AND THE BANJOS ARE IN THE CORRECT ORIENTATION...

3. MAKE SURE THAT ALL THE LINES AND THE BANJOS ARE IN THE CORRECT ORIENTATION...

4. MAKE SURE THAT ALL THE LINES AND THE BANJOS ARE IN THE CORRECT ORIENTATION...

hopefully you guys are getting the point about the orientation of the lines... if improperly installed, i have heard of control arms shearing the lines etc etc etc... i don't want anyone to lose their brakes in hard driving...

5. NONE OF THE FITTINGS ON ANYTHING IS TIGHT... I.E. EVERYTHING IS HAND TIGHT JUST TO MAKE THE KIT EASIER TO SHIP (IN OTHER WORDS I PUT ALL THE ADAPTOR PIECES ON THE LINES)

6. DO NOT INTERCHANGE THE ADAPTORS ON THE CLUTCH LINES FOR THE ONES ON THE BRAKE LINES (OBVIOUSLY, THE CLUTCH LINE IS THE LONG ONE WITHOUT THE BANJOS)

7. WHEN INSTALLING THE DISTRIBUTION BLOCK, START THE HARDLINES IN THE DISTRIBUTION BLOCK BEFORE YOU BOLT THE DISTRIBUTION BLOCK TO THE FRAME...

8. the 90 degree banjos are for the rear (i.e. the shorter ones)

-james
 
#14 ·
man... dude i'm still rocking my digital camera from 10 years ago... it was the hot **** back then with 2.0 megapixles... and now my cell phones has that... ha ha ha ha ha....

i love all the photos...

jay i wanna turn your first photo into a poster... and hang that **** on my office wall...


edit: rev and batou, email me the photos that you took... i wanna turn them into posters... ill have extra ones made for you guys...
 
#16 ·
Got my clutchline today :)

Looks very nice, the finish and quality seems to be top-notch :)
(Makes me regret I already got other brakelines some months ago).

Will let you know how the install goes :)

-n
Cool deal, I'm glad you got that in.

installation should be a breeze, the hardest part will be removing the stock line... don't forget to remove the bracket, (its attached to the tranny tunnel)
 
#17 ·
I just installed a set of these exact lines but for my RX8.

Clutch feels great.....brakes (with the new Carbotech XP10 / XP8 pads and Motul RBF600 fluid) feels phenomenal!
 
#18 ·
I had just installed these myself after having them for almost a year.

Installation was pretty easy and straight forward. I used Adam's guide taken from miata journal's online magazine.

The rear went on with no problem what so ever. The fronts on the other hand... Both fronts sheared and ripped near the black connector during a test drive while making a U turn in my block.

Though I'm chocking it up to installation error since the end piece with the banjo was tightened down facing slightly towards the shock instead of facing towards the hard line connection. I switched back to OEM, so not that big of a deal to me.

Other than that I think these look wonderful.
 
#19 ·
man, that sucks, the orientation of the lines is really important on the front because you have to not only allow slack for suspension travel up and down, but you also have to account for turning radius... also you need to make sure that the lines have the twist in the same way... email me, i have some spair front lines with not fittings if you need, 30 shipped to fairfiel, ca, let me know.

james photoclubb@hotmail.com
 
#20 ·
I attempted to install the clutch line over the weekend. Since I have the engine out of the car, it was on my list of things to do. I have the FM SS clutch line (short) that connects to the stock looped hardline and the James399 line that eliminates the loop. One of these was gonna replace the stock hose. Why? I burst one in the past. That is a HUGE pain to replace with an engine in the car. It's 5 minutes without the engine installed. So... either my used FM line or the new James399 line would get installed.

Comparing them, the FM line has swivels on the end fittings. (Not sure if this is the right word.) This lets you leave the clutch line stationary while tightening the fittings. The stock lines have this too. It's a standard feature of most hydraulic lines. The James399 clutch line does NOT have this feature. So, to tighten it, I'd have to spin the entire clutch line around. This is actually possible since the end that connects to the firewall is just a clip-on (the stock hardline screws into it). But it is far from optimal. In my opinion, the lack of swivel on the end of the James399 clutch line makes this less easy to deal with on a maintenance basis than the stock curly hardline. To change out the clutch slave, I'd have to do a lot more work than with just the stock curly line and the short FM SS line.

So... I reinstalled my used FM clutch line and my curly hardline.

Sorry to not have a good review of this part.
 
#21 ·
NOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!! :mrgreen:

The lines should have a "swivel end" to allow you to tighten the entire line without you having to spin the entire clutch line...

Rev limiter, if you can take a vid of your line not spinning, i can have one in the mail to you by saturday...

yes i do stand behind what i sell...
 
#24 ·
I got mad hate over at m.net when I had some install issues. Nice to see I'm not just a clueless asshat and others have had some as well.

As for the clutch line I can attest to the fact that it is not fun to install thanks to the cramped space. It is true however that the lines swivel, I had no issue with that. I guess Revs might have been a little tight or he has weak, girly hands or something.
 
#25 ·
I just clamped the banjo fitting in my vice, wrapped the line around my hand, and twisted. I can verify that mine has (had) absolutely no swivel whatsoever. And that they tear apart pretty easily.

side note to that "tear apart easily" bit: I've never even considered applying the kind of force to an SS line that I did just now. I usually treat them with kid gloves like an exploding hand grenade when tightening. Because, well, I've always heard that they tear and kink easy.
 
#26 ·
i have no doubts you know what you are doing... i also trust you when you say it does not swivel etc... all that being said, the offer still stands, let me know if you want a replacement, and i can have one in the mail to you asap... and yes improper handling of the lines will cause them to kink and or worse tear...
 
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