Brake caliper mounting points
 

Got new brake caliper seals today for my wee RGV 250. Fitted them to my nice newly cleaned calipers, reassmembled everything, fitted one caliper to the bike no bother. Went to fit the second caliper only to realise that one of the threads are stripped! How the F**K? I only used a nut spinner with the screws up to this point, so no real force was applied, and the bolt was damn tight when taking it off...

Anyhoo...my thoughts are to take it to an engineering shop and get it helicoiled. Anyone out there with a better idea, or tales of woe to put me off using a helicoil on a brake caliper? If I read the book correctly it gets torqued to about 40Nm.

Thoughts and opinions please!

Re: Brake caliper mounting points
 

Weeeellll... It's a brake, so clearly one needs to be careful, that said Helicoils and the like are sometimes used to make threads in soft materials stronger, by that logic it should be OK.

For the price of a thread repair I'd probably do it, if it takes the fitting torque* I'd reckon it'd be fine. Remember the brake torque is taken in shear, the bolt is essentially a pin with a thread on it to stop it falling out, although of course the tightening does add some rigidity to the whole thing as the parts aren't an interference fit.

* And if it's repaired right it will.

Re: Brake caliper mounting points
 

Last time I did this was on my knackered old Bandit 600 that had the wheels removed a fair few times in 75K miles, most of them by a gorrilla I think. I found a brake caliper mounting bolt the next size up, then drilled and tapped the hole in the caliper mounting up to suit the bolt and then opened the hole in the fork leg to take the bolt. It worked perfectly

I think I went from an M8 bolt to M10, or M10 to M12, can't remember but it was only a 2mm larger hole in the fork leg lug, so not a drastic change

Re: Brake caliper mounting points
 

Cheers guys...

Plan to visit an Engineering shop tomorrow. Will let you know how I get on!

Re: Brake caliper mounting points
 

Well, local engineering shop wouldn't touch it! Bloke recons the only thing to do with it is to nut'n bolt it, or go up a size.

I think I might try somewhere else, I was getting the impression he just didn't want to even look at it.

Will have a look at the nut'n bolt option any way I think. Could save a few quid, and no hassle if it works out.

Re: Brake caliper mounting points
 

To be honest Phil, that's what I'd do rather than reducing available material by going up a size just yet. Make sure the whole assembly is locked off with suitable washers or locking nuts and keep an eye on tightness for a while.

Oh yeah - and NO stoppies for now.

Garry