Metric hardware in brake parts (rant)

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threefortyduster

2XSM
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Location
St. Petersburg, FL
Is anyone else sick and tired of having metric hardware put into the brake parts that are available?

I can only find wheel cylinders with 7mm (headed and threaded) bleeder screws. Others that I find online generally don't list what the thread is. I just got stainless front hoses from Dr. Diff, and while the banjo bolts have the correct thread, the head on the bolt is a freaking 15mm instead of the 5/8" that it should be. I bought from Dr. Diff instead of the other aftermarkets because I figured they cared enough to include the right stuff. I guess I was wrong. I bought a pack of tube nuts, including the 1/2-20 tube nuts that the master cylinders require. They don't use a 9/16" head like the factory ones do, NOOOOO, they chose to use a 13mm wrench size.

I'm not against metric fittings, I have full metric tool sets (and truth be told, I actually prefer them), but on a car that came with 100% SAE fasteners, why are companies putting metric fasteners in? ESPECIALLY when those fasteners have an SAE thread pitch, why would you go through the effort to put a metric head with SAE thread? All this is doing is making me have to put more and more metric tools into the trailer tool box in a car that had none of them from the factory.

Does anyone know where I can get the actual right stuff with SAE wrench sizes? It's bad enough that my throttle linkage parts came with all metric bolts, then the electric fuel pump came with metric stuff (and wire nuts, but that's another story altogether), but come on.
 
I'm not sure it is. . . . . "better than nothing." There is an incredible array of damn near unsafe import parts. "Everything." A dimmer switch from NAPA that lasted maybe 20 cycles. Poor quality front end parts. It never ends.
 
It is very hard to find SAE parts. I'm lucky in one of the local NAPA stores has a counter man that understands. He's ordered a number of wheel cylinders and sent them back as being "incorrect" since they were metric.

Since then I've learned that Autozone, Advanced Auto Parts and O'reilly Auto Parts all have a Bleeder screw assortment pack. It had 2 of the correct 1/4 inch bleeder screws so I just had to find a wheel cylinder with the correct small bleeder port which was much easier.

I refuse to put metric anything on my car as I don't want to have to carry a large tool box.

It makes the parts people groan when I hit the door.
 
Look for a local nut and bolt house, they will carry both sea and metric items
 
Because everything is made in a foreign country today they only know the metric system. Unless companies demand or specify sae threads we have to put up with this.
 
Get used to it.
The world has moved on, and like it or lump it. It has moved on without you.
That's just the way it is.
It's not going to change back.
 
hemi71x said:
Get used to it.
The world has moved on, and like it or lump it. It has moved on without you.
That's just the way it is.
It's not going to change back.
Click to expand...
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I fear ur right , but it pisses me off too , to buy hotrod parts for a 50 yr old car , from jegs or summit , and the have metric fasteners in them !! dsam chinese one-hung-low b.s. !!
 
I feel OP’s pain. Was recently restoring the 4 wheel drum brake system in a ‘66 Fairlane. Rear cylinders were 10 mm, front right was 8 mm AND front driver’s was 7 mm! I felt like I was taking a toy wrench to the bleeder screw. Thank god it wasn’t froze or needed any real leverage/mechanical advantage.
 
hemi71x said:
Get used to it.
The world has moved on, and like it or lump it. It has moved on without you.
That's just the way it is.
It's not going to change back.
Click to expand...
Who says that it has "moved on without me?" Is nobody allowed to just state a dislike with the way things are?

I pretty clearly stated that I prefer metric stuff, I just don't understand why one would make parts with two different standards when the only use of those parts is on a vehicle that didn't originally come with it.
 
Jax_1975_Dart said:
I feel OP’s pain. Was recently restoring the 4 wheel drum brake system in a ‘66 Fairlane. Rear cylinders were 10 mm, front right was 8 mm AND front driver’s was 7 mm! I felt like I was taking a toy wrench to the bleeder screw. Thank god it wasn’t froze or needed any real leverage/mechanical advantage.
Click to expand...
Yep. 3/8" hex tube nuts are bad enough as they get old. Even using flare nut wrenches, mine rounded off and I ended up cutting the line for new ones.
 
The companies that rebuild wheel cylinders use the next size bigger bleeder. (usually a metric size) 9 times out of 10 the reason why the cylinders are replaced are because of a twisted off bleeder. They drill out the twisted off bleeder to the next size and tap it for a metric bleeder screw. Think about that a minute.
 
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