Mustang Club of Maryland

Lets see if I can keep this short.

Drivers side brake caliper lost one of the two bolts on the 'inside' that holds the caliper in place on my way to work the other day. (MRSs' car was in the shop, she inturn drove my PT and I drove Evelyn).

When the bolt dropped (I heard it .. 'plink..pli..plin..plink...plunk' as I was driving down 29 to work) only about a mile from work so drove slowly and limped her into the parking lot. Because it was the bottom of the two bolts I was 'ok' going forward and stopping... the rotation of the rotor would 'pull' the caliper onto the rotor. All was fine until I tried to backup into my parking spot. The caliper bottom pivoted on the top bolt and swung out ... grabbed ahold of my rim (putting a decent notch into it) and locked up the wheel. I stopped, pulled forward into the spot infront of me and left her there.

Found two grade 8 bolts to replace the missing one and the one that was still holding on (didn't trust it since it too was loose and didn't know if the threads were messed up) and limped her home that afternoon.

In the process of backing up and getting it stuck into my rim it curled up the brake pad cover and sheered off the bottom bolt that held it into place.

Now that Evelyn is back home .. I need to drill out the sheered bolt out of the caliper and put a new one back in its place. I've never done this before, so I need some instruction here.

I figure I need a Tap & Die set to re-thread it, but isn't there special drill bits that are used when drilling out stuff like this? After I have the tools to do this, is there any special hints or tricks that I should know about?

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Daniel Dunn
Member since 2002

double D,

its best not to try to rethread the caliper bracket. You should be able to center-drill the bolt and rotate it out with a screw extractor.

If you want, I can come by and help you get it out.

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Jim DeAngelis

Thanks Jim that would be wonderful!

Let me see if I can't sneak into the garage this afternoon after work and take a picture of what I am talking about. The bolt in question is kinda small, I just want to make sure that you know what you are getting yourself into.

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Daniel Dunn
Member since 2002

no problemo!!

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Jim DeAngelis

Ok, here is the gallery:

Some examples:




My two shiny bolts!


Highres close up of the remaining bolt head:

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Daniel Dunn
Member since 2002

Wanted to give a public pat on the back and a job well done to Jim. He came over yesterday and extricated that sheered bolt from my caliper!
I was actually kind of embarrassed as the bolt w/out its head was just about turnable with your fingers. He ended up using a chisel, hammer, and a pair of needle nose pliers to get it part of the way out, then finished the job using his fingers.


and all I did was

Thanks again Jim!

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Daniel Dunn
Member since 2002

no problem! glad I could help!

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Jim DeAngelis