Frozen Calipers??

[dbole]

I know there are other threads about this, but wanted to be sure and also had some questions. I recently completed my engine swap, and the truck has been sitting in my garage for 6 months while I did the work. I wasa test driving the truck and noticed that the brakes were really soft and I had no real stopping power. I jacked up the truck and looked at the brakes and the pads are in great condition and there is fliud in the system. I removed the pads, and when I pressed on the piston, they were sluggish to move in and when I pushed the brake pedal, only one would push out.
I got new calipers, and the 17mm bolts holding the calipers on are seized and I am afraid I will round off the bolt heads. What are your experiences with this and how else can you get the bolts off to replace the calipers. I tried a air wrench but no room to get it in that small space.
Thanks

 

[A.Wilson013]

Try with a breaker bar. If you do indeed round the bolt off, heat it up and grab it with some vice grips.

You'll make it through my man, you'll make it through.

 

[tbst]

I had the same problem, with the rusted caliper bolts. I broke one off. Ended up having to split the caliper to get the caliper off the hub. Luckily, I had new calipers for the Tundra upgrade.

However, as awilson said, I was able to heat up the remaining caliper bolt and use vice grips. Came out like a champ.

Someone put the permanent loctite on mine before, so that probably didn't help.

New caliper bolts are around $2 at the dealer. I only replaced the one.

 

[dbole]

I ended up soaking the bolts wiht PB Blaster and then let it sit overnight. Got a 1/2" 17mm socket and with my breaker bar got both of them replaced. Truck is out of the garage and running great. Will post pics and thread on my build experience.

 

[maxspeed96ct]

Heat the bolt, impact gun will help. Sometimes you can hammer on a smaller socket and loosen that with the help of some heat.

Worst case you may have to drill the bolt . Leave the head on it, You would start directly in the center of the bolt with a small bit and then work up to a larger bit. And eventually you get close enough to the thread the bolt will free up the bolt with just a simple turn with the vise grip. And worst case if you nic the treads you can chase them with a tap. If you don't have one a cheap harbor freight tap should work.

Good luck