Taurus Car Club of America : Ford Taurus Forum banner

Seized caliper bolt

8K views 12 replies 9 participants last post by  Hornswaggle 
#1 ·
I am trying to convert to larger front brakes. The right side went ok. The left side upper caliper bolt is seized. It stripped all of 12mm sockets that I have. It probably itself is stripped by now. I am thinking of going out to buy a new bolt and a couple more sockets. Is there anything else I should pick up?
 
#4 ·
The caliper bolt screws into the guide pin. You will need a new guide pin and bolt. Ikely easiest way is to remve the yoke to spindle bolts (15mm) and remove the yoke and caliper as a unit. Twist the bolt head off and separate. Need a 6 point quality socket. Only 6 point, 12 point is useless here.

Guide pins are ~$4 a pair at RockAuto and include bolts. Rubber boots are separate. Bit over $4 also.

-chart-
 
#5 · (Edited)
Ok. In the end, this was not the case of a badly seized bolt. The problem was a bunch of crappy cheap sockets! I stripped or cracked three 12mm sockets and run out of them! The thing is that I started working on my car relatively recently, and never got around to buy a decent set of tools. Instead I'd just pick up the cheapest stuff from the discount parts bin at Advance Auto Parts and NAPA as I needed. Well, a lot of those tools are junk. So, I just went to O'Reilly Auto Parts to take a look. Their 12mm sockets look just as flimsy, and still relatively expensive. Then I went to AutoZone one block away and picked up a couple of their Duralast 12mm sockets (bought two, $6 each, in case they get stripped). The first one worked flawlessly on the first attempt. Go Duralast!
 
#6 ·
Live and learn, you could have bought a full metric 6 point set of made-in-USA Craftsman sockets for the same price you spent on all the Chinese junk. Don't feel bad, we all learned this lesson the hard way.
 
#7 ·
I guess down South people don't run into bolts that are tough to turn. As soon as I started wrenching in high school, I quickly learned that I have to beat the game with rusted and seized bolts. I learned to switch all sockets to 6-pt, and to switch them to impact sockets, which never break. Even regular Craftsman don't always do it. If you break one, what's the point of replacing it if you know it'll break again for the job? Shortly afterward, I bought an oxy-acetylene setup to heat rusted bolts for removal.
 
#8 ·
Sometimes it is good to use new calipers and start over fresh. Any vehicle I have owned gets new calipers at 150K if not before. I like good brakes and knowing I do not have to wonder if the damn patch on the old one is going to last. I know it is not rocket science but I like to know that my efforts will last without repeated problems. Calipers working well is very important!
Glad the good socket saved your frustration of the cheap junk.
Clean the calipers well and inspect closely.
 
#9 ·
The bolts screw into the guide pins. Caliper is a clearance hole.

Caliper pins are cheap, and come with new bolts.

Need to clean the hole of old grease and maybe some moisture. I use universal gun cleaning kit from WalMart and the wire brushes are good to clean out cleance holes of excess thread locker and rust. The swab (410G) I think works fine for cleaning the hole the pin fits into.

I use CV joint grease as I have it, but others ues different products there. It doesn't get hot, it is just a steel pin against cast iron. Issue is moisture getting inside the boot.

Just my experience.
Guide pins are a common brake failure, mpg issue, and seldom checked by the shops. I'm not the only one here who has guide pins stuck. Once stuck or near sticking, the plating on the pin is gone and repeat failure is on the way.

Pin bolts get a dab of removable thread locker.

-chart-
 
#10 ·
The bolts screw into the guide pins. Caliper is a clearance hole.

Caliper pins are cheap, and come with new bolts.
$4 kit in a nearby store..

Need to clean the hole of old grease and maybe some moisture. I use universal gun cleaning kit from WalMart and the wire brushes are good to clean out cleance holes of excess thread locker and rust. The swab (410G) I think works fine for cleaning the hole the pin fits into.
That's good to know for future brake service. Fortunately, this time I was replacing the caliper brackets with new bigger ones.
 
#11 ·
I have 96 Taurus,and the front calipers are so rusted that all tools I used are either stripped or unusable, anyway any suggestions,I can't even drive the car because the pads and rotors are seized up,any suggestions please.what should I use,the calipers bolt on the bottom are equally rusted
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top