I was installing my 1LE kit from Ed Miller today, and while I was torquing the caliper adapter bracket to spindle bolt to spec, the head snapped right off. Now I have no idea what to do. Has this happened to anyone before? I am beyond frustrated, and as of now have an inoperable car.

 

Can you remove the bracket & use vicegrips or is it busted flush on the mount?
IDK- grasping at straws for an idea

 

Dude, you are a huge effin' stud. In my frustration, I didn't think of the most simple solution. I owe you a beer.

 

What size bolt and what were you trying to torque it to?

 

It was a 14mm head, I'm not sure what pitch it was. His instructions specified 75 ft lbs, which the bottom bolt did, but the top just sheered. I'm thinking it's because the top bolt bottoms out in the hole as opposed to the bottom one which has a hole on the other side.

 

Odd. None of mine were blind holes on Ed's kit.

 

Sometimes it just happens.

Better that it broke now, than right behind a school bus or something.

Definitely do check to make sure it's not bottomed though, so you don't (a) have it happen again, or (b) reach full torque before it's actually holding the pieces together.

 

Strange. The head marking on that bolt suggests its a grade 8 bolt which suggests it is SAE. So I don't see how its possible that it has a 14mm thread. Instead I suspect its a grad 8 7/16-20 bolt. That would normally have a torque spec of 75ft lbs dry.

Did you put any lubricant or thread lock on the bolt?

Definatley make sure the bolt isn't bottoming out.

 

Even if the bolt DOES bottom out, which is just my theory so far, should grade 8 bolts handle 75 ft lbs of torque?

 

Hope it goes as easy as it sounds!! I had a couple Long Islands : )
Couple weeks ago I broke some fender bolts on " the other " car. I had to heat them a bit with a lil propane torch then did the vice grip thing. Worked out good-- home it goes ok for you-- good luck

 

Yep, it worked like a charm!

 

IIRC, mine were a metric/Allen head capscrew. But, it was 2 years ago and I'm borderline senile.

 

I managed to bottom out a metric 10.9 bolt on my setup. Fortunately ace hardware had a replacement bolt I was able to use of the same size/grade. Had to laboriously drill it out with bigger and bigger drill bits until it crumbled. Avoid that at all costs, but if you have to drill it out you can. It will chew up the drill bits but as long as you dont force it, you will make slow, steady progress.