Im having trouble getting a bleeder valve loose on the front calipers. Its rounded off and, of course, vise grips just make it worse. Do you guys have any tricks for getting that bad boy out.

Im thinking of welding a tight fitting nut to the valve so I can get a wrench on it.

Any ideas?

Try to heat it with a propane torch then hit it with PB Blaster or WD-40. Try to grab it with some Vise Grips it should come out that way.

Jeff

This might sound funny, but after soaking it with pb blaster, take a small drill bit that will fit in the hole of the bleeder, insert the shank end not the cutting end.

Now when you start to turn the bleeder valve the drill bit will not allow the bleeder valve to flex and bend as you try to turn it.

Might need vice-grips.

You know calipers or wheel cylinders are pretty cheap. How long do you wanna mess with it?

Originally posted by DG:
You know calipers or wheel cylinders are pretty cheap. How long do you wanna mess with it? That's what I did. I think I had "welded" it in with POR-15. After the vice grips started spinning around on it (and they bit deeeeep) I got a replacement. So much for that rebuilt caliper..now a core.

Tim.

I use to do brakes for a living and the best way I found was to, Drive a six point deep socket over the bleeder and tap/beat it and the surrounding area of the caliper with a small hammer to loosen the corrosion holding the threads. This worked 95% of the time. I got to were I would do this if it even looked like it was stuck. If it to chewed up top the bleeder and the surrounding caliper area and use vise grips to try and turn it out(or an easy out if its that bad)

Hope this helps

Mike

My favorite trick for removing rounded bolts and such is somethink like what MCAF72 mentioned, with the addition of a metric socket set. Many times you can find a metric socket that's slightly smaller, and tap it on. It's hard on the sockets, but it works quite often.

And as already mentioned, calipers are cheap, so I usually don't mess with them. Ain't worth the aggravation, blasphemy and possible bloodshed tongue.gif

I'm "shade tree" as a lot of you know!!

One of my rear ones still has a bolt in it where I screwed up one and just drilled it out and put in a 1/4" or maybe a 5/16" fine threaded bolt!! I forget b/c it's been years and years ago...

It's now in a box with all the rest of my stuff to make way for my "pdqCBB" setup!!

Worked great!!!

pdq67