This is applicable to all master cylinder reservoirs in that the same physical conditions apply but is specifically for buses that have the master cylinder reservoir in front of the steering column.

The easiest way to successfully change this hose if your original plastic hose is damaged and MUST be replaced is start with  thinking of walking down a trail from the top of  a hill. It’s all downhill except it’s not – there will be places where the trail flattens, undulates upward  then downward a bit, the steep down, flat, etc, etc but the trends is mostly downhill.

When replacing this hose, the only thing that is acceptable is all downhill – there can be no uphill – ZERO UPHILL.  With an original hose, it’s impossible for any uphill to occur. If you don’t have an original hose, clear vinyl hose from Orchard Supply works but you have to work with it to obtain zero uphill and you may not be able to get it perfect.

If you do this it’s likely you probably need the rubber sleeve that goes between the hose and the entry nipple on the lower reservoir. It’s available aftermarket, I’ve seen it somewhere. You can make this sleeve out of rubber hose that fist snugly over the reservoir nipple.  You’ll have to carefully grind the hose to decrease the wall thickness of the rubber itself until it’s thin enough for the vinyl hose to slide over it with a bit of  WD-40 applied. You grind it with a bench grinder.  A  file may work but you’ll be busy with it for awhile. Make it so the end of the sleeve slightly overlaps the end of the nipple and thus tapers narrower to help initiate sliding of the vinyl hose. You may have to taper the surface of the hose itself also.  The result will be very thin but the vinyl should fit snug, not loose. The best hose to use if German fuel injection fuel hose.

Realize, we’re not working with the perfect metric size hose with respect to the vinyl stuff from Orchard. Patience. You may have to make the rubber sleeve twice – or more. This works long term (decade(s)) if you do it right and it won’t leak. If you have the original plastic clamp, use it. If not, use a  typical mini clamp gear clamp – the thinner it is the better. It won’t need to be real tight because the rubber sleeve will effectively seal the interface with little force from the clamp itself.

I’ve seen several vehicles of this generation with every single brake part brand new and still have a low pedal. The real problem was the new ill-fitted hose in the sense described above and this condition will not allow the brake fluid to effectively supply the master cylinder with fluid – air bubbles prevent it from filling. You can bleed it all day long and you will never have proper pedal height. You may find it impossible to to perfectly situate your Orchard Supply hose. You’ll have to look at it very carefully to see any bubbles. Something that helps a lot is to lift the front of the bus as high as you can with a jack and look at how the hose angle changes as you lift it, looking to see if it makes the perfect zero up hill, perfect downhill trail with no uphill undulations from the upper reservoir as described above. Try tapping air bubbles with your finger but hopefully you won’t have to.

You may also find, given that there is no perfect hose available at this time, perfect success in bleeding may only result with the front of the bus lifted way up high.