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Wow this is the most crazy ammount of different advice i've seen.
I've been told to heat the caliper up, not the bleeder. Due to the material the bleeder is made out of and the caliper.
I've had to resort to bleeding mine from the break line, which works in a pinch, but there will be air in it, not a wise idea.
The caliper is a giant heat synk (sopelling).... there are seals that can be ruined in a heart beat in the wrong hands,,, every time I have ever heated a bleeder red hot , the caliper survived ...most tmes when you heat metal to high enought temp. it will cool smaller , not to mention, the corrosion between the two metals , looses its holding power...Try heating the caliper hot enough, & see how long it takes, given the fact it is filled with fluid (sort of a coolant)....JMHO , based on a few years of doing it....
Heat the immediate area at the base of the bleed with a torch. Red hot is more than enough. Cool with water till its cool to the touch (garden hose is best) then put your wrench on the bleeder and it will turn easy! Never failed me (or Rick!) yet!! Its pretty important to cool the bleeder since brake fluid will light and it puts off alot of smoke!! Plus it helps to break the rust bond
I have metal workers and mechanics telling me not to heat the bleeder.
And as tim just said. "heat the base"
The seals will only get ruined if you get the metal red hot.
If you heat the bleeder you risk it cooling improperly and becomeing harder to come out due to its soft made material (brass or bronze) the caliper itself is a harder material. Will expand when heated, and then when cooled with water will shrink again allowing the bleeder to easily come out.
Heat the bleeder all you want if you want it to break, IMO.
Heating either will work. Heating the caliper also heats the bleeder. neither are tempered material so it will not hurt the integrity of either. Like Rick and I were talking about just a few minutes ago sometime on wheel cylinders the bleeder is the only thing you can get heat to. So you heat that.
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