My 83 300D has about 206000 miles on it. I bought it a year ago-great shape, no records.

Last night the rear brakes froze on me. As Paris Hilton would say, they were "hot." I pulled over and they released on their own, but I developed a leak in the metal brake line on the driver's side rear. After a brief inspection, I can see that all the metal lines are rusty and in need of replacement. I'm plenty willing to do the work-it seems straight forward enough. Here are my questions:

1. The car is parked at the high school where I work. Not the worst place, but I really need to get it home to replace all the lines. I have read that you can replace the metal lines in 2 pieces using double flanges and a connector. Could I just cut into the good part of the lines, remove the defective section, and put in a new section of metal tubing just to get me home? (Could it be a long term temporary fix?)

2. If I can do the above, what size is the metal brake line? It looks awfully small.

3. Does anyone know a link for instructions on using the flange tool? Never had the opportunity to learn.


OK, on to the tougher questions. I adjusted the parking brake using the star wheel adjusters 1.5 weeks ago. Everything was happy-used it a few times no problems. I did not use it yesterday at all. Do you think this caused the rear brakes to seize?

The rear wheels still seem to bind a bit. I tried to loosen the star wheel adjustment, but wheels still don't exactly turn freely. Is there a way I can completely release all tension to the parking brakes?

Thanks for reading all this!

__________________
Rich

83 300D
98 E320 Wagon