Am I reading this incorrectly? The WSM claims the bolts holding on the front calipers should be torqued to 62 ft-lbs. Mine are so tight I have already twisted a 10 mm allen socket trying to loosen them, so someone didn't read the same manual as I did. 62 seems a bit low to me. Remarks??

 

62 sounds right......I use a allen socket onto my torque wrench to set it.....

 

62 is right, mine were so tight I stripped one out using an 18" breaker bar and it wouldn't budge.

 

Thanks for the input. I guess I'll be visiting my friend's machine shop this Saturday to find a better way to loosen them. I used a length of pipe about 3 ft and twisted the male end of the socket like a pretzel and stopped before I did any further damage . 62 ft-lbs it is then.

 

Prolly need to drill it out. It happens. Be sure to use anti-sieze upon re-installation of the new bolt.

 

I had difficulty removing the same bolts using a 2' breaker bar. So I purchased a set of 1/2" drive metric allen head impact sockets for the impact gun. The bolts broke free after 8 - 10 seconds with the impact gun with no damage to the bolt heads. I believe the vibration the impact gun imparted on the bolt head freed up the rust on the bolt threads.

 

Ron, If you can't get them loose come by early Sunday and I'll see if I can help. I have an impact wrench that will either take them out, break them, or flip the car over.

Then we can torque them to spec with some anti-seize and you can finish the work later with hand tools.

 

First time I removed the calipers on both the 88SE and 90GT the allen head bolts were as tight as a small ducks ***.

I have since found that 62lbs ft works fine, they don't seem to come undone even though it seems "loose". I normally reassemble with a 1/2" ratchet that is about 10" long (lost it's rubber/plastic handle a long time ago) and find that I habitually get about 80ft lbs just snugging up the bolts before torquing to the required spec.

 

My front caliper bolts were snugged in such that the first 1/2 drive allen head that I used stripped the drive head right off the allen stem. I looked closer at the allen head and it read "made in Taiwan". I had another allen head that read "Stanley", and it took the bolt right out.

 

A steel bolt into an aluminum caliper without antiseize is never good. Get some Kroil. Let the bolt soak. Put the socket in, whack it straight in with a hammer a few times, let it soak a bit more, and then try to remove it (impact would help).

 

I tried soaking it in Liquid Wrench and then whacking it as you said. It often works. It didn't in this case. I put so much torque on the allen insert that it twisted it. And yes, better tools will not do that. I will take it to the machine shop for removal and use a torch is necessary.

 

Liquid wrench doesn't penetrate or break up corrosion very well.

 

So I've noticed.

 

Ron-

If you're stuck, one option is left handed spiral extractors like so. I ended up driving it into the bolt head with an impact wrench, then just turned it out with the breaker bar (the impact may have loosened it somewhat):

 

See Stuck front caliper bolts - now unstuck - but new problem. This topic seems to come up from time to time.



If you wind up needing to drill it out, go with a cobalt drill bit. Nice thing about cap head bolts is that they're easy to drill out since centering the bit isn't a problem (well, unless you've totally mangled it).