Hello,
I replaced my tires a month ago and for some reason ( maybe it was easier for him ) the shop removed the caliper . Anyway today I wanted to replace my brake pads and when I removed the brake pads retaining pin almost all the threads were on it . Anyway I took it to a professional to helicoil it and he told me that I will have to be extra carefull when replacing brake pads.
Do you think this is a safe repair or should I look for a new caliper? Everything seems to be working fine but what if something goes wrong... I cant really get over it and I started looking for used brake calipers.
I can see it being "OK" but I would have re-tapped it to the very next size I think I would have done. Not sure on the specifics on the bolt thread size and pitch but to me off the cuff, I think that is what I would have done.
The Helicoil is a good repair have used them many times during my automotive career. I personally would be looking to replace the caliper as helicoil repairs don't hold up well with a lot of use. But then how often do you remove the caliper?
You can't enlarge the hole as you would not find a caliper pin to fit. That is the pin the caliper floats on, not the bracket mount bolt. Helicoil will work but timezert probably better, if enough material around it, it lasts longer than the original threads.
Laughing at that. Thinking of a certain ATX transmission I've had running since '07 and still runs perfect. I blew it up due to the engineered-in defect they all come with and what sunk the Mazda 6 car. On going back together I left one drive shell in use as a joke to myself, or whoever may tear into trans in the future. It looks like a grenade went off inside it. Still, the major working points in space were right and I changed the bushing and threw it back in. You'd freak out if you saw it though. Maybe it was the $100 bill they wanted for a new one, I don't know, but it seemed pretty funny at the time. The part is totally destroyed as far as looks, scarred, bent and blackened by metal fragments melting inside it. Maybe I just had another use for the hundred bucks.
Its very common for aluminum calipers to have the bolts seized on them. Aluminum and steel create a corrosive reaction. This is a common issue on Brembo calipers on cars. Virtually every single STI on the road has helicoils in the calipers if they've ever removed the calipers. And you're better off once you get the helicoil because from that point forward you'll never have a seized bolt. If you were to replace the caliper you'd likely just run into the exact same issue with the new one. But for the future, if you heat the bolt with a torch it will likely break the corrosion free, then just let it cool down so the metal expansion goes away.
Uh, try to heat the surrounding caliper metal instead. Aluminum expands roughly 3X as much as steel and if you heat the steel caliper bolt up it seizes even tighter until the aluminum surrounding begins to grow but it will grow less since the heat conducts through the bolt first, thus lowering the 3X aluminum swell amount.
Not a lot of thinking going on around here.
Antiseize the bolt and it won't stick in the threads.
If I were you, I would just go new, safest thing to do, I mean we're talking about a part that you need to stop the bike, but that's just me. rather say glad I did rather then wish I would have.
So many question the ability to do better than OEM. The safest thing is not to change anything.................not in my world. And what do you do if you buy lightweight aluminum calipers for high-perf work that then show up with helicoils already installed in them new???? NOT SAFE one could say and it would be the bunk. Paranoia is everywhere. There is no substitute for good solid work.
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