What's the part number for the solo bleeders that fit the IS-F?

 

Speedbleeders and Earl's Solobleeders are built very differently. It is simple to drill through the brass center of the Earl's piece and impossible to drill through the ball bearing in the Speedbleeder.

This thread has everything you need to know about Earl's Solobleeders for the F.

 

Hopefully the OP figured out a solution by now, but here I am 4 years later and I ran into the exact same problem. When I installed the Earl's on the first corner, I didn't notice the difference in size/length between the OEM and Earl's bleeders. I expected the Earl's to seat as low and as close to the caliper as the OEM so I just kept on tightening it and then the head sheared off. It didn't look anywhere close to being screwed in all the way, but it sure was. For those of you installing Earl's solobleeders, expect to see about 1/4 inch of threads exposed when it's fully seated. It won't look like it's all the way down, but it is. If you compare an Earl's and OEM bleeder, you'll see why.

Instead of never bleeding that corner again or buying another caliper, I came up with 2 solutions:

1. Use the bottom bleed hole (the one plugged up by a hex nut I believe) to install a new solobleeder. When I bleed that corner in the future, I would have to unbolt the caliper and hold the working bleeder up in the air because any air bubbles would rise to the highest point right? Or would it not matter because the solobleeder is spring loaded? If it doesn't matter where the solobleeder is installed, then ignore option #2 below.

2. Install solobleeders in the unused "plugged up" holes. Then swap the left and right calipers. This way both calipers would have bleeders at the top. I've never completely removed a caliper so this could get messy. I'm guessing i would need new gaskets for where the brake lines meet the caliper? part# 4738950020. I would probably loctite the hex nut to plug up the unused bleeder hole. Seems like a lot of hassle but it would be a permanent solution where the working solobleeders will be on top of the caliper (if that matters).

Since my brakes work great now, I won't be addressing this issue until I bleed my brakes again in 2018, but I figured I would share my findings.

Earl's part number: 280022

 

I did come up with a solution - I bought a new caliper. I tried to get it out with an easy out, but had no luck. Then I took it to a machine shop who said they would be able to drill the entire thing out and simply re-tap the hole and then install a larger diameter bleed screw, but it wouldn't hold pressure after the new screw was installed. So I just bit the bullet and bought a new one for I think around $700, and also wasted $100 on the attempted repair (which they still made me pay for even though it didn't work). Very expensive learning experience!

 

See post #18

In lieu of buying a new caliper, I decided to try to install an OEM bleeder screw on the bottom of my caliper so I could bleed my brakes. All I needed was a 5mm hex to remove the dummy bleeder/blockoff screw. At first it felt like it was stripping. Obviously it's held in there with some sort of loctite so I needed to hammer on the hex key as I unscrewed it to crack it loose. I did not apply heat and the brakes were cold. It did not leak like a sieve like I thought it would and I was able to quickly screw in a bleeder screw. I put tape on the caliper to avoid getting fluid on the paint. In order to bleed this corner from now on, I'll have to take the caliper off, put something between the pads (a puck and 2 pieces of metal, all about the thickness of the rotor), rest it on something so that the bleed screw is the highest point, and bleed it like I would normally bleed the OEM caliper. For the other corners I have the earl's solo bleeders.

Here's the dummy screw that's on the bottom of all of our calipers


In this pic, the OEM bleeder that I installed is on the top. The broken Earl's is on the bottom (where the bleeder is supposed to be from the factory). If you're wondering why it's rusting it's probably the screw extractor that broke off a year ago and not the earl's.


The caliper with this issue is the rear right