I bought some reman'd calipers from Autozone and when I tried to install them I over-tightened the lower caliper pin/bolt and broke the end off of it. I'm referring to the long bolt that goes through the sleeve boot into the caliper and caliper bracket. I bought some replacement bolts from autozone and am having trouble knowing when to stop tightening them. My Chiltons manual says torque them down to 36 lb-ft, but as much as a tighten it never gets to 36 lb-ft and I'm afraid I'm going to snap the threaded part of the bolts off again.

How much room should there be between the head of the bolt and the caliper?

Any other tips or suggestions???

Thanks!

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mdmitch2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> but as much as a tighten it never gets to 36 lb-ft</TD></TR></TABLE>

whats that mean? did you strip the threads?

i usually just hand tighten it, good and tight.

 

I didnt strip the threads - but the first time I tried to tighten the bolts, they just kept going and going until eventually the tips of the bolts broke off when they went past the caliper bracket. I don't want that to happen again, so I am trying to find out if visually there is a good way to tell when they are tight. When you say you get them "good and tight" do you mean that the head of the bolts are more or less touching the caliper (assuming the sleeve boot weren't in the way) ? I guess you probably wouldn't know the answer to that unless you had just recently changed your calipers. oh well... i'll figure it out I guess

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by mdmitch2 &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote"> they just kept going and going until eventually the tips of the bolts broke off when they went past the caliper bracket.</TD></TR></TABLE>

something was stuck in your threads then. it must have gotten stuck and you were basically twisting the bolt until it finally sheared off. next time, clean out your threads. if you ever feel that "easily twisting" feeling again, hope you can back the bolt out if you can and get a new one, its destroyed.

 

I remember doing the same thing like 4 years ago when i replaced my front calipers. I was able torque one side down but the other side just snapped the bolt. I NEVER torque those down any more, i just do it by feel....nice and snug.