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A brake job on a 2011 Silverado turned into a 3 day nightmare because of one rounded caliper bolt
What should have been a 90 minute job turned into 3 days after the lower caliper bolt on the driver side was rounded so bad my extractor socket just polished it. I ended up pulling the whole knuckle off, drilling it out, and chasing the threads with a tap I borrowed from a guy at the parts store on Grand Ave. Has anyone found a bolt extractor that actually bites on these rusted GM caliper bolts, or am I just better off cutting the head off from the start?
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henderson.kim1d ago
you're just better off cutting the head off from the start" is what everyone says but I gotta push back on that. If you cut the head off you still got a threaded stub rusted into the knuckle and now you got nothing to grab at all, so you're drilling regardless, except now you can't even try heat and a good bite first. The real fix is heat. Like a real torch, not a propane thing from the hardware store, get that bolt ear glowing orange and it breaks loose almost every time. Extractors fail because people are trying to twist a rusted bolt cold and the socket just cams out and polishes the head like yours did. Also those bolt heads are only like grade 8 but the rust welds the threads to the bracket, so no extractor on earth is gonna win that fight cold. Cut the head off is a last resort, not a first move.
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