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Rear brake caliper bracket bolt is stripped out. Help!

A

AGrayson84

CEG'er
Joined
Aug 20, 2013
Messages
329
Location
Annapolis, MD
So last weekend when I was attempting to remove my caliper brackets on the rear, I found that the button-head bolts with the torx fittings aren't in great shape. Very rusty, and the torx fitting is trashed to where the correct torx socket spins right out when trying to crank the bolt out. Even with hitting up the knuckle surrounding the bolt and using lots of PB Blast.

Has anyone else had trouble getting these bolts out? If so, how did you do it? I'm thinking of having to cut off the caliper bracket from where it surrounds the rotor, remove the rotor, and then drill out the opposite end of the bolt. I have replacement caliper brackets coming my way so cutting up the current bracket won't be a problem. Any other suggestions??

And if I can salvage the threads in the knuckle, does anyone know the specs on the bolt that I plan on drilling out? Need to know so I can replace it with something stainless. Thanks!


-Andrew
 
The best trick (besides using an air impact gun) was to simply put a vise-grip on the head of the bolt and tap on the pliars with a hammer.
 
Rear brake caliper bracket bolt is stripped out. Help!

Yeah I had this. Agree with blu, vice grips and heat did it. Swapped them all out for hex ;)
 
Thanks guys! Vice grips on a button-head style bolt??? Maybe if I take a thin cutting disk and square off 2 sides of the bolt head (opposite of each other) I might be able to do it that way. Otherwise, with the amount of rust and torque on that bolt there's no way a set of vice grips are going to bite on the bolt head and not slip. I was anticipating having to use an 18" breaker bar if the torx fitting hadn't been stripped. I'll give it a shot probably 2 weekends from now and let you guys know what worked. Thanks again!
 
Definitely usually true, but there is very little surface area to bite on, on the sides of this button head. From what I remember seeing, there is almost no surface area on the edges of the head of the bolt. I'll get it out one way or another though, even if it requires cutting up the caliper bracket so I can slide the rotor off and drill out the bolt from the opposite end.

Anyone know the diameter, length, and pitch of these button-head bolts??
 
You'll see when you get back to it that there is PLENTY of a bolt head to smash a vise grip onto.


Just do it and then tell us how it went. We've been there.
 
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