I had a friend look over my bike yesterday.  He bled a little of the brake fluid out and told me that I should probably bleed the line and put in some new (clean) brake fluid.  
I got a screwdriver to unscrew the small phillips head screws that hold the cover to the brake line, but when I tried to unscrew them they *would not budge* no matter how much force we applied.  To make matters worse, the screw heads are starting to strip.  

My questions are:
1 - whats the best way to get these screws out
2 - Does anyone know what size screws these are so that i can replace them after
   I do get them out.

Although possibly not advisable,
I got those stuck bolts out with careful use of WD40 and an impact driver.

If you have a hot air blower, you could try heating them up a bit to free the stuck screws.
Be gentle with the heat though as there is plastic under that cover.
Perhaps boiling water would work, but you'd have to be careful to avoud the nearby electrics.

You could use a hack saw to cut across the top of the screw and then turn it using a flat blade screwdriver sprocket on a ratchet handle.

I have used an impact driver. I would recomend a soldering iron and ... heat the center by touching it with Soldering iron ... then as its warm try opening it. Heat loosens loctite and other crud. Over heat and it will get larger and tighter ... so let it cool then and try it.
Cool.
Srinath.

what what what... ok those brakes were bled... maybe... 3 months ago at very most... shouldn't need to bleed anything out...


yeah...  impact driver... there's no loctite or anything

You can try remove the reservoir from the handle bar and placing it on top of a work bench. Then have one guy press down on the screw driver, and the other guy turn the screw driver with a wrench to add a bit of torque.  But I think at this point an impact driver with a sharp bit might be the best way to go.

impact drivers are cheap, and VERY useful on a gs especially.. where everything is a stupid philips head...  dumb... allen is the way to go

I had to drill mine out.  I wouldn't recommend it, it's too easy to make a mistake and screw everything up.  I was real nervous when I did it.

I had the exact problem with my front master cylinder. The stock screws seem so hard but so brittle. They just chipped away when the impact driver was used. But they lost the battle, I used a Craftsman Screwout and it worked great. The soldering iron trick might work but if it doesn't the Screwout will take care of it.

This is thread-jacking, but i started the thread, so I have noone but myself to blame.

Cheesy, you'll be glad to know that the extra tank and front fender you sold to me along with the bike has found its way to another local GSTwin'er.  I tried to give him a good deal since this site has been so good to me.  (I'm not really familiar with motorcycle part prices, so you'll have to ask him whether he thinks he got a good deal or not to be sure).

I guess the next step is to order some stickers?  I dont' think I will put any on the bike, but I have 2 guitar amps that they would look quite handsome on....

P.S. Your bike drew yet another set of complements....  from an MSF instructor (i still haven't taken it, they were full), a Yamaha dealer, a WERA suzuki bike racer friend of mine, and some random guy up at the local Backyard Burgers (looked like a rich kid. ... he'll probably look at some '05's)

The screws are 4mmx12mm.  You can find them at Home Depot in little bags of 4 each.  The best part is they are $.56 for all four, where as they are damn near a dollar a piece from Suzuki.