My brakes fell off

[Devin]

There is a problem with this picture.



And this one:




This might explain things better:








The moral of the story: make sure all of your brake caliper pins are nice and snug! I'm going to run off and pray now...

On another note, I found out what that grinding noise was about!

 

[Kens1992mtxSHO]

Wow. Could have been a close call there.

 

[93rev2sev]

If you had 17" rims, it coulda got ugly.

 

[Devin]

That was my thought. I have very fortunate break downs. I only had to travel about half a mile with the caliper contacting my rim. Now I have to extract the bolt that sheared off and get a replacement. I think I'll be replacing the hose too just in case.

 

[Danz13]

Blue loctite

 

[FastAndFurious]

It looks like whoever worked on the brakes tightened the slider pin too much or did not grease the slider pin, and the pin got stuck in the boot.

 

[yamahaSHO]

Horrible picture, but it looks like the threads snapped off.

 

[38SHO]

the bolt broke, good luck getting the old one off

now might even be a good time for a knuckle/brake upgrade so you don't have to deal with those pos brakes....... how long has it been since that bolt has been removed on a brake job or such?

also u can't really tell from the pics how deep the groove is in the wheel, but if its noticeable, I'd have the wheel checked out by a wheel repair company and get a professional opinion from them wether its safe to use or not

 

[Devin]

Yeah, my phone doesn't take very good pics.

The groove isn't very deep at all. Probably as wide as a pencil and a 1/4 as deep.

I can only blame myself for the brakes! Though a set of upgraded ones aren't in the cards yet. I got new pins and a new brake hose, so I'll check everything out when I go back to the car.

The new pins have thread locker already on them luckily.

 

[SolidState]

aren't the slider pins a use-once item on the early brakes anyways?

 

[Devin]

I dunno. I think it'd kinda be silly to have to replace the slide pins every time you change your pads.

 

[SolidState]

not when considering the duty of that slider pin.

The caliper bracket bolts on 94+ brakes are single use.

 

[38SHO]

I think thats kind of silly as long as its torqued to spec, or tight enough to your standards(I.E. the bicep torque wrench) I do brake jobs left and right and have never replaced caliper bracket bolts on any car... never had an issue

also the threadlocker won't help out in a situation like this

that probably happened from tightening it too much, which gave it a stress point or crack that was weakened and over time it gave out.... I wouldn't loose too much sleep over this if you fix it with new parts and install it correctly... now if this is a reoccuring problem.. then I'd be looking at something else causing this immediately

about the only recrommended replacement parts that are one time use that I advocate following are the Balljoint pinch bolts, they seem to take a beating........ some people also have issues with axle nuts... although i've probably taken off thousands and never had a problem... I don't give a second thought reusing it... but if I do have a new one on hand, I will use that....

 

[Rubix]

If the slider pin isn't rusty and worn looking then I think it's fine to keep using, at least that's how I do it. An important measure is to make sure to re-grease them every job, oh and keep an eye out for torn, punctured, dry rotted, or otherwise damaged boots; bad boots will cause eventual problems. Glad you are alright and the damage to your car is minimal considering the situation; this could have been much worse.

 

[SolidState]

I think thats kind of silly as long as its torqued to spec, or tight enough to your standards(I.E. the bicep torque wrench) I do brake jobs left and right and have never replaced caliper bracket bolts on any car... never had an issue

also the threadlocker won't help out in a situation like this

that probably happened from tightening it too much, which gave it a stress point or crack that was weakened and over time it gave out.... I wouldn't loose too much sleep over this if you fix it with new parts and install it correctly... now if this is a reoccuring problem.. then I'd be looking at something else causing this immediately

about the only recrommended replacement parts that are one time use that I advocate following are the Balljoint pinch bolts, they seem to take a beating........ some people also have issues with axle nuts... although i've probably taken off thousands and never had a problem... I don't give a second thought reusing it... but if I do have a new one on hand, I will use that....

Sure, but for what a new set of bolts cost, it is inexpensive peace of mind. Especially on your wife's car!

 

[Devin]

A lot of good info here!

 

[tompumped]

Good thing you're alright.
You should try Performance friction carbon metallic pads. I snagged two sets for 4o smoething off ebay. You can get them from autozone. Them coupled with a properly bled system works good for me.
I would upgrade but I have all new brakes and hubs and bearings. I trust them.

 

[Devin]

My bro has a pair of Cobras sitting getting dusty, so it's only a matter of time. Err, money.

 

[Devin]

We extracted the threaded section with minimal damage to the bracket. Once that was done it was a matter of 20 minutes before I was able to bleed it. Did some break checking at about 30 mph and it seems to be good now. I'll be popping off the wheel soon to see if everything looks good and that they are still torqued on.

Now that this experience is past, I took some of the advice and ended up buying new slider pins for my S10 Blazer. Before I had just planned on reusing them!

 

[92MTX]

Slider pins are notorious for sticking/locking up..
I had to replace my caliper brackets because they were rusted solid..
Well, my '94 ATX was a Katrina recovery I nursed back to health.. LOL