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Brake caliper bolts


Exmoor Beast

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I am in the doghouse :(

Took Lucys new Disco out and blew the CV to bits :) OPPS!

My own fault entirely as I knew it was clicking when we bought it, its just I forgot to get the right CV when I was down at D4x4 last week.

Anyway, wheel removed, brake caliper bolts next, uh, ahhh, uh, twang! bashed knuckles, uh, ahh, GOD these are tight.

I have WD40'd them and will set about them again later with the torque wrench. BUT how tight should they be? I don't want to go attacking them with a girt long wrench and snap them...been there and done that on the 110 :(

Any ideas?

They don't have opposite thread or anything silly do they?

Will :)

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They are standard thread Will. Some people do caliper bolts up unnecessarily tight. If the socket is a snug fit on the bolt, then breaker bar. These bolts are loctited in, so I don't think WD40 is going to work. There really is no alternative but to try to undo it with leverage. If your socket (13mm 12-point?) is a loose fit, they try hammering a 1/2" one on instead. A loose socket is more likely to round off the bolt head. More trouble than the head shearing off in some cases.

Of course, with your current record for busting anything - I would recommend you get someone else to do it! :)

Les.

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One "Trick" which can help.

With a pin or thin pointed metal object (ie dentists pick) clean out the back the the casing where the end of the bolt is...

SOAK them all over in WD40. top back sides etc...dripping !

Place a brass drift on the head of the bolt, and smack it har, resray and smack again.

Then try to undo, fill the inside of the socket with WD40 so area is dripping, try to undo, if it does move - even a bit redo the above, then DO UP a tad, then undo.

This jiggly above bit helps get the WD40 into the threads, take your time, do not rush, and work it about WD wise, snapping it takes a second, and much longer th fix..

Heat if you can get it to it helps, boiling water and wd40, and then brass drift and smack etc ...not flame - WD brake fliud is inflamable !

Nige

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I agree with the heat approach. I have to undo Locktighted bolts etc a lot (not on Landies) and heat is sometimes the only way, it softens the stuff enough to allow the bolt to start to turn, then its plain sailing.

But it has to be hot, hotter than hot water, but it shouldnt need a temperature that might damage anything. Brakes get hot anyway!

Geoff

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I had the same thought Tony and I haven't got a scooby what I am doing most of the time ;)

Will :)

If you can poke witrre etc behind it you can sometimes remove crud - loads of WD sometimes will ghet in there - clean disc off afterwards tho :( its just 'best you can'...which sometimes can make the final difference

Oh and having drilled discs helps mi7.gif:P

Nige

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just out of interest some bright spark has rounded my bolts off in the past. has anyone any great ideas for removing them i have been splitting the caliper for reasons such as wheel bearing but this is a much bigger job. some one said that it may be possible to weld 4 cheaper sockets to the bolts but anyone any other ideas??

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I had a bolt where the head had been stripped. I got a slightly smaller socket and bashed it onto the caliper bolt head. This gripped enough to allow me to undo the bolt and then bash it back out of the socket once removed.

I obviously then replaced with new bolt!

Always remember the caliper bolts are the star style of shape not normal 6 sided bolts. You therefore need the multiposition sockets rather than the 6 sided versions but sure you are aware of that.

Hope it works.

Dan

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many years ago I striped the head on some turbo studs on a old renault quadra

we had some iron repair specialists onsite and they sorted it by simply grinding a new head (from the ceased one) to get a smaller spanner onto.

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I used one of them once - it worked very well. Tap it on with a hammer so that it bites, then as you turn the ratchet, it twists on and bites - the theory being that the harder you turn, the harder it grips. The bolt was almost completely round, yet one of those things undid it with no problem. I thought about buying a set, but it's not that often I need to use one. I have a hammer and a variety of chisels anyway! :P

An ideal use would be if you rounded off the rear fuel tank mounting bolts on a 110. There's nothing you could get in there other than a socket or one of those things.

Les. :)

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Thinking about the way in which these Turbo sockets work reminds me of a product I once saw works along similar lines. This was a paste that you smear on the difficult nut/bolt head - prior to rounding it but if it is believed there is a danger that the tool will slip. The paste was a grease or somesuch with industrial diamonds suspended in it and that idea was that the diamonds would "bite" into both the tool and the fixing preventing slipping and allowing the application of increased torque. Not seen it for ages though, perhaps it did not work? :)

Chris

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