I have considered heating the caliper body in the location of the threaded portion of each bolt, but, I figure that will destroy the Neoprene(?) boots that protect part of the upper shaft of the bolt.
Any ideas?
Electric impact wrench.
On my F-250 I use a crecent wrench as a sort of crowbar pushing its side out a bit one at a time , using the housing on the disk for
leverage. They have stuff on youtube describing it
Try whiskey!. This is not a joke. Pour some whiskey on the bolts and tap on the head to try to vibrate the whiskey into the threads. I have released many hard rusty, corroded bolts with whiskey.
Use a Ford tool (Big hammer) and smack the head in a couple whacks. Then use an impact gun to hammer it out. That’s assuming you already used penetrating oil and let it soak for awhile.
If it breaks then you needed a new caliper anyway....
Impact gun as already mentioned. A shop would use an air powered one. The DeWalt battery powered should do it as well.
Windflier had a great thread regarding a somewhat similar problem, several days ago: Maybe some of the responders have run into this sort of brake caliper removal problem as well.
(I don’t need to entirely remove the calipers — just swing them “out” to do a brake job / replace pads.)
Let'em go!
Let'em go!
Let'em go!
Let'em go!
-- Elsa
With a torch, heat that end of the bolt until cherry red. Tap on it a little, then loosen as usual.
Don’t worry about messing up the boots. If the bolts are that bad, cleaning them up won’t matter much, within a year or so you’ll be back in the same boat. It’s going to need a new caliper.
You need an impact or a long breaker bar. If you wreck the bolt heads, you’ll need to torch it apart.
2nd on the heat. A cheap mapp gas torch from the hardware store will work fine. Before reinstallation coat the threads with anti-sieze and torque to the proper spec. Will never be a issue again
wouldn’t it be cheaper and quicker to just steal a vehicle?
clean em up real good if you get them out- put never cease on threads- out back in, and should be good for a few years - If you torch the bolt- If there is a rubber seal- you might have to replace that- Can’t remember if there is one or not-
Torch..........................
As a last resort, you might get some dry ice from
a grocery store, chip off a piece and hold it with
pliers against the bolt. This will make it contract
and pull away from the caliper, then it should come out.
At Home Depot in the corner they have affordable steel piping about 5 feet long of the diameter that you can fit over the end of your ratchet handle.
it’s 5 feet long so probably will give you the leverage you need.
$8
Kroil. The stuff works where no other penetrant will.
Drill it out, the heat and vibration from the drill will often break it loose
Something that has worked for me in the past is to put a long closed-end (six-sided is better than 12) wrench (not socket) on it, and smack the free end of the wrench a few times with a hammer (poor man’s impact wrench).
Hacksaw, if there’s room between the caliper and its mount, cut off the bolts, drill them out, replace with helicoils if necessary.
If none of the other options has worked.
Also, use LOTS of high-temp antiseize compound (I use nickel-bearing for my suppressors and other places).
Keep us posted.
Norm