RuBiCaNT5X
20+ Year Contributor
- 1,244
- 3
- Sep 21, 2002
-
Buffalo,
New York
Ok, I had made attempts to do my brakes the past few days. Well, Joe and I finally got it done with some help from a friend and his magic tools. Here is how it all went down.
Monday of last week, my buddy and I started this whole adventure. Autozone had the wrong brake pads marked for the Eclipse AWD and thus gave me the wrong part. I had to go back that night and get the correct pads. So on New Years Day, we tried again, this time with the right pads. The upper caliper bolt on the driver side came right out. The lower caliper bolt, however, did not. The head started to strip off of it. When we started, the bolt was a 17mm. When we eventually got it off with the bolt removers, it was a 14.5mm. NON HEAT TREATED BOLTS! We tried, propane, vice grips, mapp gas, the works to get this shitty bolt off and nothing was working. We even filed even edges on the bolts to get something to grip onto.
The bolt on the left is the NEW Napa heat treated bolt. The bolt on the right is the lower driver side caliper bolt that refused to come out until Tim saved the day!
Now we come to the passenger side of the car. The upper bolt on that one came off fine. The lower bolt was somewhat more of a problem. I used my buddy's breaker bar on his 1/2" drive ratchet because it's got a round handle that his breaker bar would fit over because it is indeed a piece of copper pipe. The frist application of force broke the pipe. The second application of force "broke" loose the bolt. In the process of me unscrewing the bolt, I realized that the rest of it had broken off inside the caliper bracket. So I drilled the bolt that was stuck in 3 times. We tried easy-out clones and that didn't go so well. We broke my other friends ratcheting tap driver.
The 4th time, I drilled through the caliper bracket. By now, the bolt that was stuck in was a nice half-moon shape and we figured it would be easy to get out. WRONG! All the pounding in the world not get this bolt out. So we decided to use a hydraulic press and a long screw. FINALLY the ####er came out! Here is the aftermath shot of me holding the two fuct bolts with the hot Mapp gas.
Here is the money shot of all three bolts. Can you find the one that doesn't belong??
Here is a shot of the resurfacing my friend hooked me up with for the bargain basement price of free..
The amazing thing is, the replacement slider passenger bolt did NOT fit in the caliper bracket. It was .5mm - 1mm too big. It is the EXACT same size as the non-broken bolt off the driver side that just had the stripped head... Sorry for the long post...
Monday of last week, my buddy and I started this whole adventure. Autozone had the wrong brake pads marked for the Eclipse AWD and thus gave me the wrong part. I had to go back that night and get the correct pads. So on New Years Day, we tried again, this time with the right pads. The upper caliper bolt on the driver side came right out. The lower caliper bolt, however, did not. The head started to strip off of it. When we started, the bolt was a 17mm. When we eventually got it off with the bolt removers, it was a 14.5mm. NON HEAT TREATED BOLTS! We tried, propane, vice grips, mapp gas, the works to get this shitty bolt off and nothing was working. We even filed even edges on the bolts to get something to grip onto.
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The bolt on the left is the NEW Napa heat treated bolt. The bolt on the right is the lower driver side caliper bolt that refused to come out until Tim saved the day!
Now we come to the passenger side of the car. The upper bolt on that one came off fine. The lower bolt was somewhat more of a problem. I used my buddy's breaker bar on his 1/2" drive ratchet because it's got a round handle that his breaker bar would fit over because it is indeed a piece of copper pipe. The frist application of force broke the pipe. The second application of force "broke" loose the bolt. In the process of me unscrewing the bolt, I realized that the rest of it had broken off inside the caliper bracket. So I drilled the bolt that was stuck in 3 times. We tried easy-out clones and that didn't go so well. We broke my other friends ratcheting tap driver.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
The 4th time, I drilled through the caliper bracket. By now, the bolt that was stuck in was a nice half-moon shape and we figured it would be easy to get out. WRONG! All the pounding in the world not get this bolt out. So we decided to use a hydraulic press and a long screw. FINALLY the ####er came out! Here is the aftermath shot of me holding the two fuct bolts with the hot Mapp gas.
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Here is the money shot of all three bolts. Can you find the one that doesn't belong??
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
Here is a shot of the resurfacing my friend hooked me up with for the bargain basement price of free..
You must be logged in to view this image or video.
The amazing thing is, the replacement slider passenger bolt did NOT fit in the caliper bracket. It was .5mm - 1mm too big. It is the EXACT same size as the non-broken bolt off the driver side that just had the stripped head... Sorry for the long post...
