brake bleed fail

rhialto

I spent an hour setting up my bike for a brake bleed - Formula Oro K-18s that take the nasty Dot 4 fluid. Spent another hour or so replacing the fluid on the front brake and pulling air out of the system - fiddly stuff. I then removed the syringe from the caliper and replaced the bleed port screw. Moving to the master cylinder, I carefully inserted the screw into the bleed port hole and watched in horror as it sank into the dark void of the m/c - I had accidentally switched the caliper and m/c screws and the rear screw is smaller than the front port hole!

I have now drained away all my previous work and armed with a headlamp I am tapping and banging on the m/c, trying to persuade the tiny screw to migrate back to the port hole so I can fish it out with an improvised hook. I am so frickin pissed off I want to pull my own teeth out with my vice-grips. So far I have had a brief glimpse of the screw but I have not been able to extract it and I am wondering if I am damaging the m/c chamber by poking it with my hook.

So my friends, I am not asking for your advice, rather I am venting my frustrations to the only group of people I know who might empathize. If it helps someone else avoid this situation, great. At the very least, maybe there is a laugh to be had at my expense. I hope someone will laugh because right now, I'm not.

nicklouse

again?

either you are re-posting this or you are the second person to do this recently.

peter413

Are you thinking of me Nick?

In which case, I was just doing a bad bleed each time and let air in the system :roll:

02gf74

small magnet to collect the screw or piece of blu-tak to pick up the screw?

rhialto

Thanks for the suggestion. I considered the magnet except the screw is alloy. The blu-tak might work. In any case, I used the incident as a rationalization to purchase some new brakes. Ordered Monday aft, received Tuesday morning and no delivery charge. Ain't the internet grand?