Tales of bolts and angle grinders...

Evening all,

I hope it's not just me that finds a simple change brake pads & disks turns from a "quick 2 hours before lunch" into an all day swearing session combined with a sudden urge to hold a garage sale of every tool I posess. It would make me feel ever better if other people also manage to actually worry the brickies three doors down with the language eminating from, say, the OSF wheel arch of a fairly ordinary car. The cursing in my case was mainly aimed at the caliper bracket mounting bolts[1] with their recommended tightening torque of 110Nm but thankful lack of Loctite. Three were ok - I define ok as only breaking the one socket on one and getting two out with mere Herculean effort. Sadly the final one had been attacked by the monkeys with air tools once too often and had lost its corners resulting in more swearing, lots of panic at the encroaching gloom and finally spending a painful hour with an angle grinder to get the bolt head off...

And that's where the head scratching starts. The bolt goes through the steering knucke and screws into the caliper bracket but in removing the bolt head the mating face of the steering knuckle suffered a little colateral damage where the grinder blade's dug in a bit. Nothing serious, it's just not completely flat anymore a light ridging/rippling effect, maybe 1/4-1/2 mm peaks and troughs. So what I need to know is, will this affect the effectiveness of sticking a new bolt in and tightening to 110Nm? Is it going to come loose if it's not a flat to flat mating face? Should I:

a) just put in a new bolt and tighten? b) as a) but with some sort of compressible washer in there? c) as a) or b) but use Loctite on the thread (by default it doesn't use any) d) file the mating face flat first? e) bin the knuckle? (bit drastic) f) something I've not thought of?

All pointers, suggestions and offers of solace greatly appreciated.

Scott

[1] aka the B*s*a*d Bolts[2] [2] ie you spend a lot of time shouting "come off you b*s*a*d!" at them
Reply to
Scott Morris
Loading thread data ...

I would just dress the damage off with an angle grinder, or more delicately with a file.

Stuart

Reply to
Stuart Gray

You could try a brass washer & some loctite

Probably the best solution.

Reply to
Duncan Wood
[snip]

Cheers for the replies guys. I've had at it with a file and it looks a bit better for it. Just waiting on the bolt now - ruddy garage didn't have any. Nearest one 50 miles away. Arrgghhh!

Scott

Reply to
Scott M

Why is it that there's ALWAYS one that won't come off!

Reply to
krystnors

Because people don't reassemble stuff with assembly compounds as a matter of course... copperslip has it's place.

On my car, Citroen have been good enough to plate (galvanise) all of the bolts so they come out without too much of a fight.

-- James

Reply to
James

Rover when they were Rover used to use green bolts 'parkerised?' which seemed to resist corrosion pretty well. Haven't seen them around for a while.

Reply to
Dave Plowman

MotorsForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here. All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.