Hey, good idea but this is gonna be a two man job ... the heating and the monitoring. Maybe you could come down and do the monitoring part. I'll do the heating. We'll do it blindfolded so as not to skew the observations of the observer (you). You just let me know when you think it's hot enough.
Seriously, I've carefully heated and liquid wrenched that stuff repeatedly in the process of loosening one bleeder screw and breaking the other. The wheel cylinders are only like $12 each and I have a life time warranty on the ones I have in there. The real issue is that I don't want to do all that work. That would easily take me part of a day to prep for and all of another day to do. Sh!t, I could probably turn this into a week long project if I wanted to turn the drums.
It's funny with these old trucks and rear brakes. The guy I bought my truck from took the bulb out of the dash board trouble indicator rather than fix the brakes so it had none when I got the truck. Even after fixing the brakes it took me a while to break down and finally replace the emergency brake cables to make it all work like it was intended. It's a standard so it's important. A friend of mine bought a similar truck off another friend of mine who was all happy when the State Vehicle Inspector told him that since he couldn't get the drums off to inspect the brakes he was just going to let him slide on that. So it didn't have any rear brakes either. So both of our trucks have been without rear brakes and without emergency brakes. Now both of these trucks have slipped out of gear and rolled down hills from being parked and left in gear. When it happened to my friend I laughed at him because he had been making fun of me for using the E-brake on flat land. He failed to use his on a incredibly minor hill and it very happily rolled to the nearest 4" thick oak tree and completely effed up his bumper. You know how some guys don't like to say 'I told you so'? Well that ain't me. It was even funnier because it had been filmed by a surveillance camera.
I'm going to check the weather site and at least go buy some plugs to get it ready for the heavy duty cold that is no doubt around the corner. That God (or global warming in Davemcc's case) it's not here now.
Careful you don't cut yourself on that sharp wit of yours...
It's simple - if you can't touch a spot where there is a seal, it's too hot for the seal as well.
All this talk of seals makes me want to go grab a club...but I digress....
I've carefully heated and liquid wrenched that stuff repeatedly in the process of loosening one bleeder screw and breaking the other.
Those two words seem to contradict each other.
The real issue is that I don't want to do all that work.
As I said before, I don't do much vehicle maintenance myself anymore. Just don't have the time for it. And if
you don't want to, then take it to a garage.
I remember the first time I did my own brakes. I needed to replace the shoes and adjusters (seized solid) for the rear drums. To make sure I was putting everything back together correctly, I figured I'd take both drums off and use one side as a guide to ensure the other was correct. I borrowed a floor jack, jacked up the whole rear end and left it on the floor jack, as I didn't have any axle stands. Looking back, it was incredibly stupid, but hey, I was 20 and it was my first vehicle.
As I sat on the ground with my legs extended under the leaf springs, working away, a thought crossed my mind. Hmmm, if that jack collapses, both my legs will be crushed. So, I got up on my knees instead. Not two minutes later - crasho - down comes the truck. It was on grass, so there was no damage. But, I did break out in a cold sweat.
I learned a lot that day...
I've done a lot of my own work since then, but haven't hurt myself - or a vehicle - since. However, 95% of my present DIY projects involve wood, glue, paint and power tools.
