hey all. my caliper has an issue. a couple days ago, the bottom bolt of the caliper just snapped off. i didn't notice it untill it started to squeek on the turns. when i gave it a better look, the end of the bolt is still threaded into the caliper. how can i get that out? i stopped by a shop and i was told 1-2 hrs of labor to get it out. Bulls@$t. there must be a way?
It probably snapped by being overtorqued which also has a nasty habit of stripping out the threads in the knuckle. Keep in mind that those particular bolts are only tightened to 11 ft-lbs. If it all goes to hell in a handbasket and the threads get boogered up, a friend of mine who is a Jeep parts designer makes a thread repair kit for that exact bolt hole in the caliper. He sells it on his wife's Amazon.com website.
Worst case got to Farm and Fleet and get a new Caliber, They are pretty cheap for new Calibers, If not Farm and fleet check another auto parts store. Save you time and headaches.
so the head of the bolt broke off? Can you just remove the other bolt, rotate the caliper up and use a needle nose to turn the shaft? Or can you get enough room to cut it off, and leave enough shaft to turn it that way?
Na the bolt just busted straight flush with the knuckle, there's no way to grab at it. i'm thinkin jerry's theory that it might have been over tightened and busted off with time. I'm gonna try the exctractor this evening if i get a chance and hope for the best.
ya i wish i had a mig welder, i know that approach too but i don't have anything with me. that would definitely be the easiest way though. my neighbor from the family home has one, but he's 130miles away. i'll have to do it this way with the extractor and a spring loaded wrench.
interesting jerry... i got into it a little today and wimped out. got the pilot screw through, then tried the extractor, but the thing busted in half when i started to turn it hard. i think it was too small. I started to drill one size up a few times in a row and then stopped myself when i noticed that the hole wasn't straight. i'll try again a little later this week, ge the hole straightened and use a larger extractor. its not worth wasting time and effort to bring it into the shop and then be told that they cant weld it off, so i'm back where i started.
hey all. I got it fixed. couldn't wait it out, just had to get it done. first went and bought a used knuckle from the junkyard for back up, which looked like crap. (rusted all over and just ugly compared to mine) put her back up on stands and got the damn bolt out with minor thread loss. (only loss was at the very end of the hole and on one side) so saved me some money and only took 20mins when i had it up. i'll take a little manual labor over 1-2hrs at a shop.
Thanks to all for the input!
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