Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

While preparing my 99 curvy 650S for MOt yesterday, passed no prob hooray, I decided to pop the rear caliper off to clean and grease the pins holding the pads in. I do it about once a year and torque the bolts down correctly. Can't remember the figure off hand, but it's not very high.

So with about 3 hrs before the test appointment, the first bolt sheared when I just nipped it up. When I looked better at the second I could see it was badly stretched. I was able to get 2 new bolts (thanks CJ Balls at Hale) but 2 points:

First, is this something generally known about? I find it a bit odd that such a low torque figure should stretch the bolts like that. Or could it be a result of braking forces? I'm not a heavy user of the back brake. Any opinions? Having thought about it, I vaguely remember seeing somewhere that these bolts shouldn't be reused, but renewed each time. I thought it was overkill, but apparently not. The front caliper bolts look fine, but I'm replacing them anyway.

Secondly, it might be worth popping your caliper bolts out and having a look, if you haven't recently. I'm glad mine didn't shear while I was riding.

Ride safe all!

Re: Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

One of mine snaped when i was cleaning mine rr caliper up :(

Tip for pointy (K3 dunno about other models) owners if you need anything for your rr brake caliper pop to your local Honda dealership and ask for the part you req for a CBF600 04, when i snapped my bolt i phoned suzuki dealers they wanted £5 odd for the bolt i needed, went to work started cross refing and found that the 04 CBF600 uses the same rr caliper and the same bolt was only abourt £2 :thumright:

Re: Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

Yeah one of mine snapped too, while using a torque wrench.

I suspect I set it incorrectly though, and the length of the wrench masked how tight I was going. Luckily the hole exits the back of hanger so you can get the rest of the bolt out easily.

Re: Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

I am another person who snapped one of these bolts. Currently wondering the best method of getting it out.

Re: Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

OEM brake caliper bolts are a disposable item according to the manual. Should be replaced each time.

I picked up a nice set made of stainless from 'tasty nuts'.


Edit - actually no it doesnt say that for the SV, but it did advise that for my CBR600. I think you could safely get away with re-using them half a dozen times or so but worth keeping a set handy. I wouldnt want to shear one of those during braking.

Re: Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

They're pretty easy to remove, as the whole they thread into exits the back of the hanger.

A drill will just spin them out of the back. You may need to remove the hanger depending how much bolt is left in there as the rear brake disc may stop it coming out entirely.

Now the bolt has no head, the threaded part isn't tight as such.

Re: Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

I was quite lucky with mine, ok my mount and caliper are at the top but i managed to get some pliers twist it out and bodge a bolt from my FZR in there before i got a new one, just couldnt use the rr brake though

Re: Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

+1 they look much better too

Re: Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

Thanks for the comments. I'll be keeping a regular check on them, front and rear now anyway. The broken stub was easy to remove on mine: the bolt had sheared about 3mm from the head, so there was plenty to get hold of. It came out with fingers only, but as I said, I'd literally only just nipped it up when it sheared, and it was coppergreased too.

Aren't SV's lovely bikes eh? Had mine 6 years and it still gives me a buzz every time I go in the garage.

All best to all.
GeoffB

Re: Rear caliper mounting bolts
 

I'm looking to do my rear pads soon, i had a look at tastynuts they've got some nice looking gear, but i can't find the caliper mounting bolts on their site, also is it worth replacing the pins with titanium ones? mines a K5