Snapped a bleeder

[JPul]

My truck is getting close to its 4rth birthday so I felt a brake fluid change was way overdue and judging by the deep gold colour of the removed fluid, it certainly was overdue.

Having had many experiences in the past with broken bleeders (breaking them), I want to get to the bleeders as soon as I get the vehicle, remove them, neverseize and replace so that when the time comes, they'll come out. I had got around to the front ones and they were not a problem but the rears had been untouched. I pre-blasted them with Breakaway and let them soak for a couple of hours. I started on the right rear. I tapped the end of the bleeder with a hammer, applied an 11 mm 6-sided socket with gentle pressure and watched the entire bleeder slowly turn. These bleeders go in a long way. Got it out, neverseized and reinstalled. Then I attached the catch reservoir,opened the screw and squeezed the pads in so that I could remove the caliper and pads and lube the pad to carrier mount points and the caliper slide bolts. Put everything back together, pulled as much old fluid out of the master reservoir as I could and proceeded to pressure bleed the right rear.
Buttoned up the right side and moved on to the left. I wasn't so lucky here as the light application of the 11mm socket turned the socket but not the bleeder threads and it snapped just like the picture in Ryan's thread. What to do now.

Since the bleeder had not budged, there was no leak. But I still wanted to get some of the old fluid out. So I went back to the right rear, opened the bleeder and then sqeezed the pistons back into the left rear caliper as far as they would go and then proceeded to purge the old fluid out of the line through the right rear bleeder. There will still be some old fluid there but that would be just the remaining volume in the caliper with the pistons all the way in plus the short section of line form the caliper to the union block on the left side of the axle.

I lubed the pad mounting points and caliper slides and buttoned the left rear back up. The bleeders on the front calipers freely turned as these had been previously removed and neverseized. So with the fronts lubed and bled, the job was done. I used 2.5 quarts of new fluid and still need to by some more to top it up.

My plan at this point is to leave it alone and in about 2 years, get another left rear caliper and replace when I do the fluid flush the next time. I won't be waiting 4 years this time. I looked at how much bleeder is buried in the caliper and it looks like a major pita to get all of it out.

It would be interesting to know if Ryan ever did get his caliper repaired and how the other 3 bleeders went with all the precautions taken as that thread never got updated beyond the one broken bleeder.

Regards, John