Someone else's idiocy turned a job of new pads and rotors and a brake
fluid change into a 3 day ordeal. I've had this happen before, but
mostly due to my own mistakes when I was younger.
My Dad is one of those who does stuff like you mentioned, though. "Get
it driving no matter what" is his motto. He actually wanted to try to
tack weld the pin to the knuckle with his MIG welder. I said no thanks.
Of course he likes F*rd, so. ;)
I'd have Helicoiled it, but I was already $100 over budget with all the
brake fluid and parts I had to buy, not to mention the 100+ miles I put
on my Dad's spare car driving from parts store to parts store. Plus
I've never had good luck with Helicoils.
Oh, and for the list - the Napa part number for the banjo bolt for the
2nd Gen Dakota front brake caliper is "UP 83210". This is not in Napa's
computers or Autozones or O'Reilly when looking up the Dakota. The Napa
guy found it when I brought in the old one, and he had to dig out one of
their old books and do a sight-comparison.
Also, the part number for the oversize self tapping caliper bolt is "BK
6751539". In Napa's computer it's listed as RWD only, but if they pull
up the part number it cross-references to the 4x4 Dakota. An "indexing
mistake" the guy at the counter said. The same pin is used on a bunch
of Fords, Mazdas and VWs, so I guess Chrysler isn't the only one with
weak threads in the knuckles.
I think this is why all the caliper bolts are allen head now instead of
the old 10mm hex head - most monkeys don't have sockets with allen
heads, so they can't overtorque/crossthread them as easy while using
their $3 set of Harbor Freight allen wrenches to tighten them.
M.B.
On 09/20/2010 11:42 PM, TerribleTom wrote:
>
> M.B. wrote:
>>
>> Then I went to take the caliper off to replace it and found this:
>>
>> http://www.moparhowto.com/pictures/1995-Dakota/brakes/bad_bolt.jpg
>
> Sweet!!!
>
> I love when stupid people try and do brake jobs. I get to hear and see a
> lot of it. Customer bought a truck from some guy - a 1-ton 4x4 dually
> dodge... had bad brakes, towed it home. Started digging into it and
> discovered that whoever changed the brakes last, must have done calipers
> - or hoses or both... either lost the copper washers for the brake
> lines... or didnt know any better to use them... and had gunked up a
> bunch of RTV Silicone gasket maker to try and seal it.
>
> Had a kid come in once with a vacuum barb fitting double hose clamped
> between the two cut ends of a rubber high pressure brake hose...
>
> Add in your frequent "lets just use a compression fitting on the line"
> individuals...
>
> just this week - A guy didn't want to spend the $8 bucks on the caliper
> tool to rotate the piston back into the bore. (rear caliper on a volvo -
> and several others with integrated parking brakes... piston rotates as
> well as moves in and out)... tells me he will just make do with a vise
> grip pliers...
>
> You have my sympathy for having to deal with the aftermath of someone
> else and their ignorance.
>
> --TerribleTom
>
>
>
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Mon Nov 01 2010 - 10:47:31 EDT
