andersoncm2
New Member
Finally Fixed!!
Well, I finally did it!!!!!! I had just about given up on trying to get the caliper bolts out myself and admit defeat. I was getting ready to call a motorcycle/atv repair shop about 50 miles away, swallow my pride, and pay someone to fix my screw up. Luckily, the metric bolt out set I ordered from Harbor Freight arrived today. I decide to go ahead and give the new tools a chance--heck, all they could do is not work just like the Craftsman set. Harbor Freight design was little different, and they WORKED!!!! Well, they worked on the 2 bolts that just had the heads rounded off. The socket bit hard and deep into the rounded bolt head; however, I still had to put a cheater pipe on the ratchet to get enough leverage to break the bolts loose. No locking compound on either bolt--they were just torqued down to probably 80-100 lbs/ft. Still, the one that I had been trying different techniques on (grinding, drilling, vise grips, voodoo, etc.) was so mangled, that the 12 mm bolt out socket would not take a bite. i tried the 11mm, wouldn't fit, so I hammered it on--but it still wouldn't bite--my attempts to remove this bolt had mangled the head so bad that the 11mm tried to bite, but there was really nothing left to grab on to. I tried the hammer on and try to ratchet off technique numerous times before I just gave up. My next thought was "I'm going to look like a total idiot taking the bike to a mechanic to get 1 bolt loose." I may be horrible with tools, but this thing was NOT going to kick my butt--at least if it did, I was going down with a fight!! I had already tried drilling the head as suggested above a few days ago, but had broken a couple of bits and gave up. So, I took the Dremmel with a cut off wheel and cut the head off the bolt, but the flange was still there. I broke out the drill once more and continued to drill in the previous hole I had started a few days ago. With the head gone, the drilling went much smoother. I was able to skip to some larger bits--all the way up to the largest I had (3/8), but the flange never "twisted off." I just had a 3/8 hole recessed in the bolt. I felt defeated, again--arghhhhhh. I broke out the dremmel again and carfully started cutting notches in the remaing flange. I then took an old screw driver and hammer and broke about 1/3 of the flange away. As I started trying to get the screwdriver under the remaing flange to pry it open and started tapping the hammer, the flange moved--as in the bolt was unscrewing. It couldn't be, could it? Without pressure on the bolt, that sucker just unscrewed--of course, now I had to use some pliers and screw driver to work the bolt around until I could pull it out. After, inspection, I did nick up the caliper bolt hole a little, but not enough to mess it up.
I did make sure when I put in the new bolts, I used anti-seize and torqued to proper specs!!
Thanks to all who gave advice!!!!
Well, I finally did it!!!!!! I had just about given up on trying to get the caliper bolts out myself and admit defeat. I was getting ready to call a motorcycle/atv repair shop about 50 miles away, swallow my pride, and pay someone to fix my screw up. Luckily, the metric bolt out set I ordered from Harbor Freight arrived today. I decide to go ahead and give the new tools a chance--heck, all they could do is not work just like the Craftsman set. Harbor Freight design was little different, and they WORKED!!!! Well, they worked on the 2 bolts that just had the heads rounded off. The socket bit hard and deep into the rounded bolt head; however, I still had to put a cheater pipe on the ratchet to get enough leverage to break the bolts loose. No locking compound on either bolt--they were just torqued down to probably 80-100 lbs/ft. Still, the one that I had been trying different techniques on (grinding, drilling, vise grips, voodoo, etc.) was so mangled, that the 12 mm bolt out socket would not take a bite. i tried the 11mm, wouldn't fit, so I hammered it on--but it still wouldn't bite--my attempts to remove this bolt had mangled the head so bad that the 11mm tried to bite, but there was really nothing left to grab on to. I tried the hammer on and try to ratchet off technique numerous times before I just gave up. My next thought was "I'm going to look like a total idiot taking the bike to a mechanic to get 1 bolt loose." I may be horrible with tools, but this thing was NOT going to kick my butt--at least if it did, I was going down with a fight!! I had already tried drilling the head as suggested above a few days ago, but had broken a couple of bits and gave up. So, I took the Dremmel with a cut off wheel and cut the head off the bolt, but the flange was still there. I broke out the drill once more and continued to drill in the previous hole I had started a few days ago. With the head gone, the drilling went much smoother. I was able to skip to some larger bits--all the way up to the largest I had (3/8), but the flange never "twisted off." I just had a 3/8 hole recessed in the bolt. I felt defeated, again--arghhhhhh. I broke out the dremmel again and carfully started cutting notches in the remaing flange. I then took an old screw driver and hammer and broke about 1/3 of the flange away. As I started trying to get the screwdriver under the remaing flange to pry it open and started tapping the hammer, the flange moved--as in the bolt was unscrewing. It couldn't be, could it? Without pressure on the bolt, that sucker just unscrewed--of course, now I had to use some pliers and screw driver to work the bolt around until I could pull it out. After, inspection, I did nick up the caliper bolt hole a little, but not enough to mess it up.
I did make sure when I put in the new bolts, I used anti-seize and torqued to proper specs!!
Thanks to all who gave advice!!!!
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