Safe method for discharging 580ex Speedlite capacitor

Long story short, my 580ex mk I took a spill in a padded bag. The lamp shattered, and I've ordered a replacement thanks to this thread:
https://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthre​ad.php?t=523087

Now I'm concerned with properly discharging the capacitor prior to disassembly. Are there any methods that are completely safe (for the flash)? Is the best bet to just remove the batteries and wait several weeks, and if so, how long should I wait?

You can discharge any capacitor safely by carefully crossing the leads with a 1 meg resistor. Keep one hand in your pocket while you do this. That way the power can't go through your heart.

MOkoFOko wrote in post #10867289
prior to disassembly. Are there any methods that are completely safe (for the flash)?

there likely isn't any way to guarantee the capacitor's completely discharged before disassembly, even after a couple of weeks. You're going to have to take the case apart and manually discharge it (as per poloman above, a 1Meg ohm resistor with crock-leads is useful for this)
It would be useful to check the voltage across the capacitor with a meter after discharging to confirm it's safe.

Hard to work out how to get to the main capacitor, but parts catalog may help here: http://www.strappe.com …phy/Speedlite%2​0580EX.pdf

Thanks guys. I guess I'll give that a try, since I've still got hundreds of resisters from my old EE courses. I was honestly hoping the discharge rate would be fairly quick. Oh well.

It should be quite quick.