found a good source for stainless-steel Speed Bleeders

[chrispitude]

Hi everyone,

Many years ago, I installed Speed Bleeders on one of my vehicles. I loved them - they made one-man brake bleeding a snap. However, much to my dismay, they began to rust up after a few years. This is not a big deal for standard bleed screws, but it matters on the Speed Bleeder where the ball valve must remain operational. Eventually I replaced them with standard bleed screws again, since those were at least cheap to replace.

I picked up a 2006 Yukon XL Denali with 90k miles a couple months ago, so I'm new to this crowd. While searching for stainless steel brake hoses, I saw in the search results that Speed Bleeder now has stainless steel versions of their bleed screws! Like many Chevy/GMC vehicles, my truck takes SB1015-SS in front and SB1010-SS in rear. However, the stainless steel bleeders are harder to find. You can order them direct from Speed Bleeder, but they want $15 each plus $5.95 shipping, for a total of $65.95 shipped. That's a bit steep.

I found an Ebay seller who sold some of the stainless versions at a pretty good discount. He didn't carry the SB1010-SS, but I asked him to order and carry them for the Chevy/GMC crowd, and he agreed! He sells the stainless Speed Bleeders for $12 each plus $5 flat shipping, for a total of $53 shipped front and back. That's a good price for one-man bleed screws that will last the life of the vehicle.

His name is Kirby and his Ebay user name is kz10cubed. He caters mostly to the motorcycle crowd, but I'm glad he was willing to help us out. You can see his auctions with this link:

http://www.ebay.com/sch/m.html?&_ssn..._nkw=stainless

then search for SB1015-SS and SB1010-SS.

I have no connection with him; I just wanted to share my findings with my fellow Chevy/GMC owners.

- Chris

[Pikey]

Good to know. I have used the speed bleeders a few times and they helped out being that I was doing the job alone. I bought them at autozone, I never had an issue with them rusting though, even though I live in Michigan where they use a lot of salt.

[chrispitude]

Thanks Pikey, that's also a good data point. They are also quite fond of salt here in northeast PA. "Rusted up" is probably not a good way to describe it; it was more like surface pitting that eventually interfered with the operation of the ball valve. I was gun-shy on Speed Bleeders after that experience, but maybe mine came from a bad batch with poor electroplating? In any case, I plan to go with SS for my Yukon just to rule out the possibility of it happening again.

[Pikey]

The first time I saw them I was thinking, "Really?, just another gimmick" But, they actually worked. I had a set on for 5 years and they still looked shiny and new. I also cap them to prevent water from getting in them. The only thing I do not like about them is that you can go thru a lot of brake fluid FAST

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