Sods law a bit of sunshine so thought I would change the front discs and pads on my little ZS daily, first side goes great no drama, 2nd side both caliper bracket bolts were already rounded off from a 13mm to 12, hammered on a socket and it wont budge, are these rounded off special sockets any good or just hype as I have one decent brake and one shagged one now and no other special tools

 

Small pair of stilsons is what I use if there is space

 

no room to get any swing or grip, really needs to be a socket of some type im guessing, oh well looks like I will have to camp out at a pals workshop and let him take sympathy on me

 

if theres room i weld a nut on, if you can get a grinder in cut the head off, remove the part then your left with a stub of bolt to weld a nut to, broken bolts are a big part of my work load on the old cats.
i have a dewalt right angle drill and a picolo mag drill for when i have no other option but to dril out seized bolts and studs. if the threads arent seized once you remove the flange by cutting the heads off it will relive the pressure and they will undo easily but obviously you will need new bolts.
i have tried a few of those roller type remover things and they have never worked for me, but give it a try youve got nothing to loose.

 

Oxyacetylene torch and a mig welder - heat it up, weld a socket on there and that baby is coming out whether it likes it or not!

 

Totally agree...

 

Irwins bolt grippers are spot on, I have a complete set and have saved me many times now.
No skinned knuckles or time wasted with welders and so on.

 

no special tools chaps its on my driveway, Kitchen devil has come to my rescue so it shall be sorted sunday morning, if I had tools like gas & welders etc I would have used them, thanks for the input chaps

 

i use these, ive used them thinking "no chance, but ill have a go anyway" and amazingly they've done the job!

 

Any room for the trusty old lump hammer and chisel?

 

As said get the irwin bolt extractor sockets, haven't seen one fail yet!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Irwin-Bolt...30590199537%26

Screwfix sell them for Ł25 all in

 

The Irwin tools really are excellent. They bite into nuts/bolts somethin shockin !

 

cheers lads Gaz is popping round in the morning with his snap on set, but I will order some irwins anyway just in case for the future

 

Sometimes just getting a bit of heat into the bolt with a blowtorch is enough to get it moving.
Good thing is if it really is impossible to get out then the hub and carrier assembly comes off so easily on those that you can unbolt the lot and work on it on the bench/take it somewhere to get fixed.

 

Also worth noting, some manufacturers put thread lock on their caliper bolts. So heat can almost be essential.

 

I even used my or win set on a rounded off Allen key bolt!

 

Im gonna get myself an Irwin set, im forever welding nuts on and undoing them... Altho that serves 2 purposes, it gives you a good nut to grip and it heats the rounded bolt up nicely!

 

its good such a simple job has brought about this information, If I had of had heat trust me I would have applied it as I know how much easier it makes things, but at home on a freezing cold driveway I was very limited with tools

 

Just added the Irwin stuff to the Christmas list!

Cheers.

 

Irwin set FTW - a 'must have' pieces in the toolchest!!

 

another vote for the irwin set from me

 

they look the same as the snap on ones but lots cheaper irwin stuff is good too

 

cant argue with these kits as it took 10 seconds with the socket to get the bolts out, Cheers Gaz

 

Glad ya sorted mate.

 

we need some pictures of the carnage mate

 

something so simple being such a pain in the rear end

it was all over in a jiffy it would have took longer to take a picture then the actual job