Brake System bolts

[Vapour Trails]

I'm doing my agent 47 duct install this weekend so I was just glancing at the online shop manual for torque specs and the manual is recommending discarding many of the capiler-related fasteners and using new bolts.

I thought I'd ask here since you guys are playing with the brakes more than anyone else, are you following this recommendation?

 

[JeremyH]

Nope, nor am i with any other bolts on my stang

 

[DusterRT]

They're fairly cheap, I'd replace them every once in a while if you're R&R'ing a lot and tracking the car. I've re-used mine a few times but plan to replace them next time around..figure it's cheap insurance for a mission-critical item.

 

[STEVE_POE]

buy yourself some thread locker and you will be good although Stretch to yield bolts should be replaced .

 

[Vapour Trails]

I reused them with some blue loctite. Wasn't able to get a torque wrench on the caliper backing plate bolts though, theres no room for the wrench.

 

[ArizonaGT]

If you're talking about the dust shields, just leave them off unless you've got a brake cooling system.

 

[Philostang]

Hey Vapour,

I asked this question around at several Ford dealer shops (talked with the managers at places in California and the Midwest). The consensus I got was a chuckle. One guy told me if they followed those shop recommendations his whole warehouse inventory would be full of nothing but bolts. The concern seemed to be twofold: legal and practical. The legal is the usual corporate "cover-their-butts," and the practical was that the paste-on thread locker that the OEM bolts come with is usually a one time deal. So, the "fix" seemed to be (with all appropriate legal disclaimers) a tube of loctite (as Poe recommended).

On the other hand, I recall one member once doing a bolt test and found (with some variance) that on average the suspension/brake bolts can take three torque cycles safely before they are overstretched. That was just one man's careful experience.

I have to confess, I used mine for probably twice that before replacing them. I don't think as bolts they're fairly cheap (Ford prices are high), but as insurance they are definitely cheap.

Also, I had trouble with the torque wrench, but nothing that a medium extension couldn't fix.

Best,
-j

 

[Random Asshole]

Wow. Even the brake bolts are tty? Jesus Christ. I've had the brakes off and on more times than I can count. Fuck that. And no, I haven't used thread locker on them. I replaced my front control arm hardware once as per recommendation, but that was like 80 bucks worth of bolts. This time I'm just using threadlocker and checking them when I have the wheels off. Which is often anyway..

 

[STEVE_POE]

I use thread locker on everything now days . another thing I do,Get yourself a paint marker. Mark the bolt to the body with a simple line. When you have the wheels removed from the car you can do a quick visual to see if anything has moved.

 

[chad05gt]

Get the specs on the bolts and run down to a Fastenal, or the like, and get new.

 

[Random Asshole]

Some of the hardware are flag bolts. (control arms) Dunno how easy it would be to find replacements elsewhere besides the dealer. Not 100 percent neccessary, I suppose. Anyone finding this stuff at rockauto.com or the like? I've got an exploded view of the front end with part numbers I should probably dig up. Some bolts where hard to find numbers for.

 

[DusterRT]

Some of the hardware are flag bolts. (control arms) Dunno how easy it would be to find replacements elsewhere besides the dealer. Not 100 percent neccessary, I suppose. Anyone finding this stuff at rockauto.com or the like? I've got an exploded view of the front end with part numbers I should probably dig up. Some bolts where hard to find numbers for.

I was going to try to find some "generic" bolts for the strut/knuckle, but they are kind of a hard size to find, at least through conventional means without having to buy a bulk quantity. They're 14mm I think, and somewhere around 110mm long (this was over a year ago and I'm going purely on memory though so...take it with a grain of salt). I found some lower grade coarse threaded bolts, but I felt better re-using the stock bolts than those. If someone finds a source for them, I'm all ears..

 

[Vapour Trails]

Even the brake bolts are tty?..

I don't think a single bolt, save for the crank bolt, that Ford recommends you throw away is really a TTY bolt. They should be called CYA bolts.

The torque specs for many of them would come nowhere near stretching the bolt. A lot of the minor suspension fasteners have specs of 55lbs or 85lbs, that's nothing.