Caliper bolts to the forks are stuck

[brett]

I wanted to check out my front brake pads, but I just couldn't get the damn bolts loose. Does anyone know what these are suppose to be torqued to? I was using a normal sized hex wrench, but for the life of me I couldn't even get it to budge. I didn't want to push it farther and strip the bolt.

[makenzie71]

heat them up and break them loose.  They probably have lock-tite or something on them.

[ducati_nolan]

To check your pads just look at the thickness of the friction material while its mounted to the bike. You only need to remove the caliper to inspect the pads, if something funky is going on.

That being said, eventually you will need to remove the caliper to replace the pads. If it dosen't come off easilly, spray some WD-40 or other penetrating lube on the bolt and give the bolt head a couple of sharp raps with a wrench or hammer. Now walk away and have a beer.

Once you've finished the beer and the lube has had some time to do it's thing use an impact wrench if you have one    of course you probally don't have one, so put a box end wrench on there (preferably 6pt but 12 pt should work) hold heavy pressure in a counter clockwise direction, then smack the wrench with a hammer. This should do it.

If this dosen't work, spray more lube, have another beer, and try again. Eventually the lube will get in there or you'll start hitting it harder as you get more drunk. Either way it should come loose.

I wouldn't recomend using heat as this could screw up the forks and brakes, not to mention the paint. This should be a last resort.
If no matter what you do, you can't get it loose, just borrow an impact wrench or take it to any auto shop and they can do it with theirs.

This should do it, now start drinking 

[silver_rider]

Ah, you will need a lot of leverage to get those suckers off. The best would be if you could get #8 allen socket and put it on the long torque wrench. But if you don't have that, try using regular #8 allen and add lenght to it by sliding a bar over it. I used my hydraulic jack handle.

Those bolts are exposed to a lot of road grime and tend to get stuck.

Good luck,

Doug.

[annguyen1981]

Ah, you will need a lot of leverage to get those suckers off. The best would be if you could get #8 allen socket and put it on the long torque wrench. But if you don't have that, try using regular #8 allen and add lenght to it by sliding a bar over it. I used my hydraulic jack handle.

Those bolts are exposed to a lot of road grime and tend to get stuck.

Good luck,

Doug.

+1 on the leverage...  I had to use a breaker bar to undo those two bolts.

[ducati_nolan]

The bolts holding on the caliper aren't allen, they're regular bolts (don't recall the size) Yeah breaker bar and or a pipe on a socket wrench may do it as well, although you may break the socket wrench. But the WD-40 and beer are still important.

Also, the impact wrench should definately do it, but if it dosn't and nothing else will you could probally just take the wheel off and leave the caliper on to replace the pads. And the torque that those bolts are supposed to be tightened to is 30-48 newton meters or 21.5-35 lb-ft
good luck 

[sledge]

The bolts holding the caliper had thread-locking compound applied when the bike left the factory so WD40 is a waste of time. A good quality 6-point socket and a breaker bar will crack them off. Set your torque wrench for 39Nm, the mid-value to allow for inaccuracies with the torque wrench.

[scratch]

Some bikes have normal bolts (14mm?), others have the 8mm Allen/hex bolts.

I have an impact driver if you can't get it off.  pm me for my address, come on over and we'll bust 'em loose.

Edit: oops, I have a seminar tonight, but Saturday afternoon would be good, and all day Sunday.

[aaronstj]

I did mine by slotting the hex wrench, then standing on it.  Probably not recommended.  But it worked.

[brett]

Well, I followed the WD40 and beer advice above. I kept pouring more beer on the bolts and downing more WD40, but the only difference is that now my bike smells like booze and I just got back from the emergency room. Thanks a lot @$$hole.'' 

Heh, thanks for the impact driver offer from Scratch. (Check your PMs.) The bolts should be off tomorrow, yay.