Main thing I wanted to share is this happened last night on my way home from work. Driving 65MPH and I start to hear grinding coming from my right rear wheel area. Turn the radio down to get a better listen and thought, oh crap, that can’t be good. Coming up to an intersection where the light was red I let off the gas and ease into the brake and it starts growling like nobody’s business!
I immediately whipped into a gas station that is closed and here it is 11:35PM and I have no tools and still 5 miles from home.
I get out and see what the situation is right away but how do I secure this caliper bracket with no bolt or tools? I’m walking around the gas station lot looking for a piece of wire, a chunk of wood I can beat I to the mounting hole with a rock, anything to get me 5 miles with minimal brake. So I decided to sacrifice my phone charging cable and wrapped it thru the mounting hole a few times and tied it in a double knot. Welp, hope this holds and I make it home.
It held and I did. Not exactly sure how I lost the bolt? Did I not tighten it back when I did the backing plates and put the new caliper on? No way it would have held that long. I don’t use thread locker on them anymore, I just smack the wrench with a BFH a few times and I’ve never had an issue with the thousands of brake jobs I’ve done. Is the mounting plate or bracket cracked? I didn’t see anything broke, cracked or busted this morning when I put new bolts in. The bottom bolt was in all the way but wasn’t BFH tight. Probably because the bracket turned in the direction of loosening the bolt. I put thread locker on this time and cranked them down but I’ll have to keep my eye on them now. This was a freak thing and I hope it’s not a reoccurring incident. I did check the other side and they were tight. Idk, but I’m glad it didn’t cause more damage or happen while I was heading up north. I’ll probably change the rubber hose too just because that was the only thing keeping it from rotating into the wheel.
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