Lotus Elan and Lotus Elan Plus 2 Forums

Has anyone any tips or tools for the removal of a sheared bleed nipple on my Sprint? It's sheared flush with the caliper.

Thanks

I'm curious to know, also. I just purchased a pair of remanufactured calipers for my Sprint and find the bleeder just won't seat well. I've tightened them about as tight as I can; they are REALLY tight, but they continue to dribble. I'm afraid I'll break them.

Greg Z.

Greg,

Apparently the tops of the nipples are hardened, but when I took my old ones out they appeared worn - there was a groove near the point, but they were sealing OK.

I would suggest that if yours are unduly worn, they may need replacing or stupidly enough if they're not worn they might need to be to bed in properly and I suppose by giving them an extra 'tweek' you should get a good seal, but be careful or you may end up with a sheared one like me!

I'm going to the Classic Car show on Sat and I'm buying some bleed nipples, let me know if you want some and I'll get them and send them to you.

Regards, Andrew

The bleeder fitting stores a lot of energy between the threads and the seal surface so the trick is to weaken that connection. That's done by drilling out the passage (inside hole) to only the depth of the bottom of the threads at a diameter which is about .010" smaller then the male thread root diameter size for that thread. Then stick an Easyout into the remaining portion of the passage and remove the fitting. If it broke off because of rust then that must be chemically weakened first. Easyouts only work well when there is sufficient wall thickness to resist expanding the threaded portion otherwise they tend to behave more like a self-locking device.

If it's rusted in then may I suggest you smear some silicone brake assembly lube on it and that should stop any corrosion from happening again.
Keith

Keith,

My friend has lent me some 'devices' that are about 4 inches long with a square profile that tapers to a point at one end - are these what you are calling Easyouts?

If so, I presume that once you have drilled a suitable sized hole you tap them in with a hammer and the tapered end creates a square hole in what remains of the nipple?

Thanks again, Andrew

Andrew,
The bleeder nipples are brand new so I suspect 'bedding in' is required. Hopefully they're not stainless (I'll have to check when I get home). That'll make them really hard and difficult to seal. Thanks for the offer on the new nipples but I have several used ones floating about and I'll try those next.

Greg Z.

Andrew,
Do a google search on 'easyout' for instructions. Just beaware of the wall thickness limitation. Common mistake is try to use the largest diameter easyout that will fit. This is one case where smaller is better.

Oh, there are many similiar functioning type devices and the square ended you've described probably does the same job.
Good Luck.
Keith

Hi Greg, The bleed nipple does not need to bed in and should seal with a very light load 7 - 13 Nm. If its not sealing then something is wrong - either the seat is damaged in the caliper or the bleed screw is faulty.
Steve

Greg,

Be sure you have the LONG nipple bleeders. If you use the short ones the hex part will seat against the caliper before the end seats against the bleeding orifice. From recent experience with trying to use the short speed bleeders.


Mike G.

Hi,
I had the same problem with a bleed nipple and used a stud extractor. The type that look like a tapered tap with a reverse thread. Wind it into whats left of the bleed nipple and it goes with pop and bobs your uncle. Word of warning, if the extractor snaps first you are in trouble as they are hardened sttel and so cannot be drilled out!
Cheers
Tim

Mike and all,
Yes, I have the long nipples. I agree that it shouldn't take much force but I've got a feeling that these being remanufactured, the nipple seats could have been 'roughed up' by bead blasting. I have heard of this type of operation on reman'd stuff. There's usually a kid in the back room with a basket full of calipers, master cylinders, etc, and his job is to clean these things up; usually by blasting. I had a nice master cylinder ruined this way.

So if the seat is roughed up, I can see where the nipple is going to have a hard time doing its job of sealing.

With broken bleeders, heat is your friend. First remove the caliper from the car and split the the caliper in half to remove the square O ring and reassemble ond torque without the rubber O ring. Other wise you will cook the O ring. Now take the half with the broken bleeder some where that has and oxi/acetylene torch and heat the cast iron that surrounds the broken bleeder until it is red hot and drive in the "easy out" and turn the broken bleeder out. works for me.

Gary

I have the same problem with my +2 but don't make the same mistake as the previous owner of my car did. He drilled out the nipple, the threads and the sealing face and then proceeded to re-tap the caliper and put in an ordinary bolt with a copper washer. I only noticed when I started rebuilding the calipers.
As a temperay measure until I can find a new caliper I drilled and tapped the bolt and fitted a new nipple. Like one of the previous messages warned, the sealing face was uneven due to the judder of the drill going through the hardened bolt, and the result was it continually weep. As a temparary measure I punched a 1/4" dia piece of gasket rubber and melted a tiny hole through the center of the piece of rubber. I then pushed it into the base of the bleed nipple hole and inserted the nipple. It worked and stopped my leak.

If anyone has a spare passengers side rear caliper for sale, at a reasonable price, I'd like to hear from you.

ColinT

Colin -

Have you tried Andy Widnall at Spyder cars? He has a pile of used parts removed when fitting his updated components. I bought a pair of rear calipers from him at Donington last March at an attractive price.

- Bill