Caliper mounting bolts?

[AR5ENAL]

Hey all, I just noticed that in my Haynes, it shows the front caliper mounting bolts as being regular hex bolts, but the mounting bolts on my GS are allen bolts?!  Does anyone else have this?  More importantly, can anyone tell me the size of the allen bolt?  I don't have any allen wrenches, and I'll have to buy a allen head for my torque wrench this weekend.

TIA

[Kerry]

If you want to be sure, try one of the following:

1) Measure across the flats of the hole with a mm-marked ruler.  (A small school ruler will work fine.)

2) Remove different hex-head bolts from your bike until you find one that will fit into the allen head just right.  Use the size of the wrench or socket (that you used to remove the bolt) when shopping for the allen head socket.

[ashman]

Hey I had the same problem too. Heres my post on it. I ended up going and spending a few bucks on allen wrenches and it worked out fine.




http://www.gstwins.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=6692&highlight=

-ash

[JamesG]

They should be 8mm hex head bolts (12mm socket). Someone was being "cute" and used those cap bolts, probably cheapos' from the local hardware store.

I would replace them with OEM ones,  you never know what quality they are and your brakes are kind of important.

[The Buddha]

Yea I have seen enough allens and round cap hex... I dont even know which is the real thing. My feeling... they used whatever they felt like.
Cool.
Srinath.

[Briggs]

I have socket head cap screws on mine.

[JamesG]

Did you get it new from the dealer like that?

I have NEVER seen any Japanese bike come with allen head caliper bolts, much less any GS.

My suspicion is that its common for the first person to try to take the OEM bolts off rounds the corners because the dudes at the factory like to torque the crap out of them.  They then replace them with what ever bolts they can find, and the most common source for 8mm 1.0 pitch bolts are the plain socket caps they sell in Lowes and auto parts places.

[AR5ENAL]

i got mine used...but given the condition of the bike when i bought it, i wouldn't be surprised if the previous owner went cheap on the caliper mounting bolts.

i'm planning on doing some brake work this weekend, which rules out the possibility of getting factory bolts from the dealer.  i'm assuming that going to OSH to get some 8mm 1.0 pitch bolts wouldn't reallt be any sort of improvement....damn.

[dgyver]

I would think grade 5 or 8 bolts would be just fine.

[dgyver]

I have NEVER seen any Japanese bike come with allen head caliper bolts, much less any GS.

I was flipping through a GS factory service manual and on page 6-8 in the front brake section, the pictures show the mounting bolts for the front caliper as flanged allen head bolts. The manual was copyrighted in 1990.

[Kerry]

For more evidence, see the thread [Front brakes- Need Help], where ashman's '93 has Allen bolts.

Towards the end of the thread I linked to a pair of BikeBandit diagrams that SEEM to indicate a change between the '95 and '96 model years.

ashman!  Is there any way you can repost your pictures in that thread?  (Edit each post and change the URLs to the new host?)