Hey Guys,
I need some help and suggestions. I'm installing new Brembo blanks & Hawk HPS' right now. I've got the caliper off the front no problem, but for the life of me I can't budge the two torque member bolts. I've tugged as hard as I can & they won't budge. I don't have access to an impact wrench & even if I did I don't know that there would be room to use one.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

The long pipe over the ratchet trick to gain leverage. Hit them with a penetrator like PB blaster and let them soak. Last ditch effort is heat.

 

I got some PB Blaster & hit it with that a few times, but still no luck. If I can find a pipe or a breaker bar, I'll give that a try too. I'm not too sure how I can fit a breaker bar or pipe into that spot though. It doesn't look like theres gonna be room.

 

what you can do is heat the torque member around the bolts so they expand more than the bolts...exhaust shops do it when you have a rusted stuck bolt....the other option is if you can't fit a breaker bar in there, you put the wrench on there and hit the wrench with a mallet.

 

This is what I did yesterday after spraying/soaking the bolts with WD40 for 20 mins.

 

Success!! After eltting 'em sit over night, I hit them again with a few more shots of PB Blaster and was able to finally bust them lose. I feel stupid, but while I was laying in bed this morning I realized it would be a whole lot easier if I turned the wheel all the way towards me. Made a big difference in getting more leverage. Thanks for the advice, guys!

I'll let you know how it all goes once i'm done.

 

I think you need to hit up the gym

 

Another question, is it a problem that the Hawk pads only have wear indicators on two of them? The oem pads had wear indicator clips on all four.

 

Probably true.

 

Well, I got them on finally. I used one of the pads with the wear indicator on either side. I just took my first test drive & I was going to do the hard stops per the bed-in procedures, but I'm getting a really strange noise that has me worried. I pulled over because it didn't sound good at all.

Its hard to describe, but sometimes I hear a grinding noise about every half second. I start hearing it when I get over 15 mph, but other times when I was driving through my neighborhood I couldn't really hear it. I'm pretty sure that I torqued all the bolts down properly.

Any ideas??

 

Well obviously you figured out the "turn the wheel" trick... so that's good I guess lol

As for the noise maybe you bumped the dust shields so they are just barely scraping against the rotor?

 

It's possible. I'll have to take a look at that.

 

Alright, this morning the noise seemed to go away within 20 seconds of driving it. From that point on, everything was fine. The stopping power with the Brembo blanks & Hawk's is definitely stronger than the OEM. Most importantly, my irritating shimmy in the wheel is gone!!

Thanks for the advice. This was my first break job so it was a good learning experience for me. I'm pretty sure if I had to do it again, I could get it done in half the time.

 

Last time I did a set of pads on stock calipers, it took me 6 min from start to finish. both sides. started w/ car on ground.... and it was raining....