allen key bolts on brake calipers

Gray6634 · Post by **Gray6634** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:41 pm

who at vw thought it was a bright idea to fit allen key bolts to the brake calipers. i am talking about the two round the back that you remove to get at the brake pads. After an hour of trying to get them out i gave up. I managed to get one out. i am planning to go to my local scrappy and get a full set off a polo they have in there. I am also going to take those crap allen key nuts out and replace them with ten mm bolts, far better....

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 3:57 pm

They're not that hard to remove.. if it's really tight in there just hold the allen key firmly in place and give the end of it a few sharp taps with a wooden/rubber mallet and it'll shift.
The difficult part is getting them back in the right place again

Gray6634 · Post by **Gray6634** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 4:05 pm

believe me mate i was bashing the allen key good style, one of the nuts were rounded off and the others werent budging. At least if i stick to my scrappy idea i can take my time and clean up the salvaged calipers. on a good not i got a 1.3 spi air intake pipe off a golf mk3, the one that goes to the square airbox. what i need to know is do the studs come out of the injection housing? because on the golf they bolt into the injector housing as oppose to have the nuts that go on the the stud like on the polo

LogIK · Post by **LogIK** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 9:14 pm

You should not do this. If a bolt is tight, it is better do apply a large, gradual, smooth force to it, rather than short sharp force. The way to do this is to use a breaker bar or a bit of strong tube on the end of your allen key will do the trick. Doing it this way will prevent the bolts from rounding off, or shearing.

As for the studs in the TB, to remove them from the Polo, you need to lock two M6 nuts onto the treads by tightening one against the other. Then slide a 10mm socket over the two nuts. As you unwind them, it will pull the stud out of the TB.

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 10:16 pm

Hmm.. I have to say I disagree.. sure, you shouldn't keep on thwacking it with all your might if it doesn't shift pretty quickly, but I find it's much more effective to get something loose in one short sharp shot than to spend time putting increasing amount of pressure on it, I've rounded far more heads that way with spanners slipping as I increase the pressure..

LogIK · Post by **LogIK** » Thu Mar 17, 2005 11:31 pm

Yeah, shocking the bolts certainly does work, but I never like doing it as it always seems to damage the bolt in some way, especially allen bolts.

Put it this way, if a bolt is seized, no matter what method you use, you're going to cause some damage if you don't use releasing agents

pete69zx · Post by **pete69zx** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 6:01 am

My suggestion here is...

Dont use a silly little allen key (that u have little control over), use a correct size allen socket (allen key attached to the end of a socket suitable for the breaker bar you intend to use)

ie... 3/8 or 1/4

HTH

Thats what i used, piece of p***.

BTW... try some lossening fluid on it aswell or even heat it up a little with a blow torch or similar item (pocket gas torch)

GOOD LUCK!

peteg40 · Post by **peteg40** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 8:34 am

you can't use normal bolts as they bolts are recessed in the rubbers

trick is to clean the heads out then bash the allen key in the hole good n proper then use a suitable socket to drive it... i haven't really had a problem other that when i've got under the car and the things already rounded...

hardhitter · Post by **hardhitter** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 10:49 am

Buy some new bolts from gsf for about 50p each.

GroovyCarrot · Post by **GroovyCarrot** » Fri Mar 18, 2005 4:05 pm

Mm, agreed, allen sockets are far, far better than normal allen keys. Less painful on the hands apart from anything else