Wheel cylinder bleed screw sheared off on a 97 F-150

Replacing the rear brake cylinders on my 97 F-150 last Saturday and one bleed screw snapped flush with the cylinder body. I tried heat, vice grips on the stub, and an extractor set from AutoZone, nothing budged. Ended up pulling the whole axle tube to bench press the cylinder out, which added 4 hours to a 2 hour job. Lesson learned, I'm ordering pre-bled cylinders with the screws already loose and soaking them in PB Blaster for a day before install. Anyone else had luck with a specific extractor kit for this, or is replacing the whole cylinder always the safe move?

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jesse_burns812d ago

Torque specs on those bleed screws are only like 13 ft lbs, most guys crank them way past that and that's what actually causes the snap. I'd skip the extractor gamble and just drill out the old cylinder, then have the local machine shop put a threaded insert in the new one before you mount it.

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