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RE: Flipppin' Brakes

To: "'David Mayer'" <celiracer81@hotmail.com>, spitfires@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: Flipppin' Brakes
From: "Gosling, Richard B" <Richard.Gosling@atkinsglobal.com>
Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 08:44:35 +0100
David,

The best of luck with this.  I had the same problem, and I'm afraid to say
that nothing I tried worked to remove the bleed screw.  Someone suggested
jamming an allen key into the hole, and using that to turn it - didn't work.
I tried EZ-outs - broke several, the bleed screw didn't budge.  I the end I
just bought two new calipers (I broke bleed screws both sides, and on one of
the rears as well).  Not a cheap occasion, particularly since there was
nothing wrong with the old calipers apart from the bleed screws.

You could also try drilling the bleed screw out, but I don't know how much
chance there is of this being successful without destroying the female
thread in the caliper.

The moral of this tale, for everyone out there, is:

      |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
    \                                                /
  --   DON'T OVER-TIGHTEN YOUR BLEED SCREWS!!!!!!!!  --
    /                                                \ 
      |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

They really do not need to be done up very tight to stop brake fluid coming
out of them, and as you and I have discovered they do break easily.

While I was replacing my calipers, I fitted Speedbleeders (bleed screws with
a non-return valve in them so you don't need to tighten them down each time
you release the pedal while bleeding) all round.  I have been very pleased
with these, I found one-man brake bleeding FAR easier than with the
Eezibleed (system that uses spare tyre pressure to pressurise the brake
cylinder and push fluid down the pipes), I always found getting a good seal
on the brake cylinder hard to do, and annoying that I keep having to re-make
the seal every time I need to add a bit of fluid.

I hope you have more luck removing the broken bleed screw than I did!

Richard


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