Well it finally happened....BAM

[General]

Yes, BAM. I was driving on Interstate 68 in Maryland and I heard it....the loud thump of a front brake caliper slamming into the wheel. The grinding noise stopped when I applied the brakes. So, with a slight constant pressure on the brakes, I pulled off at a nearby (within 500 ft) exit to assess the situation and found the top caliper bolt in the driver's side missing. So, the caliper would rotate around the bottom bolt. At this point, I was about 7 miles from home. The forward motion of the vehicle with a slight pressure on the brakes kept the caliper pulled back into the correct position and away from the wheel.

Thank the Lord the entire caliper dodn't break free & cause the wheel or tire to rupture at 70 mph!

I made the decision to continue down the exit ramp and take side roads home (7 mi.) whilst riding riding the brakes ever so slightly. I didn't travel over 30 mph and I stopped every couple of miles for 5 minutes to allow the rotors to cool. I made it home fine & performed the repair today at home with my tools.

I have a PM in to Dan for knuckle pricing. In the mean time I drilled the caliper for 1/2-inch bolts and tapped top and bottom knuckle caliper mounting holed with a 1/2-inch tap. I installed high-strength bolts with loctite. The scariest part of the whole experience occured when I removed the lower caliper bolt & discovered it was stripped. I guess the PO used Boneheads Incompetent, Inc. for brake jobs. Yes, I crawed under the passenger side with my torque wrench & verified that both bolts were tight (90 ft-lbs).

Thanks to all on this board for posting information on the loose/missing caliper bolt problems. I searched & realized that I wasn't the only one in this boat.

MESSAGE TO ALL: Check the torque of those caliper bolts the next time you rotate the tires. This problem could easily kill someone.

Thanks again, and to all!

 

[valentine]

Thanks for the reminder.

I was just about to pull the 80 in the garage to do a full tune up on it, and was thinking what else to check while I had it in there...

 

[RavenTai]

This has gotten a lot of people, wile you are there check the lower 4 knuckle studs, they also tend to do the same thingwhen not properly torqued.

 

[Texus]

also...

lock-tite them bolts too... been there...hopefully not again...

 

[ginericLC]

I have a DS knuckle sitting in the shed if you need it. PM for details. It could go out tomorrow. I've had this happen twice. Once to both sides. I ended up using lock tite and all has been good since then.

 

[landtank]

I guess the PO used Boneheads Incompetent, Inc. for brake jobs.

One other possibility is that when someone did the front axle job they grabbed the wrong bolts. I almost did this as well, The bolts for the calipers and the top pin assembly for the knuckle are physically the same size, only the thread pitch is different.

 

[valentine]

This has gotten a lot of people, wile you are there check the lower 4 knuckle studs, they also tend to do the same thingwhen not properly torqued.

Did the tune up last night & it ended up being so late when I got done, I forgot to check the caliper bolts.

I'll check the knuckle studs too when I get out there this morning...

 

[lahar50]

I lost a bolt in the top of my right front cal.and it cracked my wheel had to buy another one.

 

[General]

One other possibility is that when someone did the front axle job they grabbed the wrong bolts. I almost did this as well, The bolts for the calipers and the top pin assembly for the knuckle are physically the same size, only the thread pitch is different.

The bolt that remained was the correct bolt. (12 mm bolt, 17mm head, approx. 45 mm long and hardness 11) I'll never know what the top bolt was as it is now MIA

 

[sportbiker929]

torque wrench

 

[GXO]

loc-tite. Clean, goop, install.

 

[rtson]

I managed to strip one of the rear caliper bolts myself. Do not have any other bonehead to blame. Where were did you get the 1/2 in bolt? I got a feeling I am going to have to do the same thing. I know this is pretty ancient history but thought you might remember.