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Hopefully an easier topic then Josh's

Well managed to pop a brake line over the last winter storm pulling a vehicle out of the ditch. Unfortunately and embarrassing enough the vehicle I pulled out was my own plow truck.

Replaced the broken brake line – glad it happened on the property and not on the road. But now cannot bleed the rear brakes – both sides – the bleed screws will not budge.

It appears that the previous owner buggered the bleed screw on the drum and the drum was put on with Stainless Steel bolts which have galled to the hub. So in short after breaking 3 drag link sockets and several impact screwdriver tips on the brake drum retaining bolts and further buggering the bleed screw even more – I am at a standstill.

How do you loosen a buggered bleed screw? Any thoughts?


All would be OK, but would like to have the truck at an event next week. Whats next week you ask? What could possibly be happening in the middle of winter in Maine? Why the US National Toboggan Championships. That's right Nationals. Nothing like going 40 miles an hour on a home made toboggan - 7.5 seconds of terror / fun. Have since won it twice in the four man teams and came in second in the World Championships last year.

Heres the link to the races.
http://winter.camdensnowbowl.com/21st-a ... mpionships
Some good videos of the races at the bottom of the above link.


Jim

In a pinch you can bleed them through the banjo bolts. Granted not as good as the bleed screw, but might get you on the road for your event.
I assume you have tried vise grips? You might also try a small pipe wrench. The tighter you pull, the tighter it gets.
Good luck,
Tim

A couple of more possibilities:
You can drive a screw extractor into the bleeder, apply some heat to the cylinder where the bleeder threads in then try to turn it out;
Or, if your bleeder is a longer one that sticks out 3/4 of an inch or more, you might be able to get a stud puller on it and crank it out that way. Pipe wrenches sometimes work but at the cost of totally destroying the item being removed.

Oh, if you have a size-smaller 6-point deepwell socket you could drive it on over the bleeder to see if it will grip enough to turn it out. One thing about seized bleeders, nuts bolts, etc. is that steady pressure rarely works-you've got to apply quick pressure to overcome these stubborn fasteners, the exception being the extractor. For everything else, use a ratchet, breaker bar and your favorite socket, load up your muscles and give the fastener a good "pop" to break 'em loose.
Gary

Can you weld a nut over the end of the bleeder screw and then extract it with a bigger socket? The heat from welding should help break it free. Liberal amounts of penetrating oil won't hurt either.

Is it a stainless bleeder screw? If so, your probably SOL... Until you decide to get mean with it; like undo the hub bearings, and take the whole works to a machine shop to have the stainless fasteners extracted kind of mean...

I'll give it another try later on today once it warms up a bit. The bit part being relative - it is minus 2 degrees F outside. At least the wind isn't blowing.

I have tried vise grips and a deep socket - no effect - pretty well rounded over.

Will try a pipe wrench. My bolt extractor set doesn't go that small, but that might work. Those things do work well - used them on the stubborn bolts on the exhaust manifold.

Worse case scenario is that i bleed it via the banjo, and do fix it proper later.

I will keep you all posted......

Jim