Bent Rear Caliper Bracket Tabs

Hey All,

I'm not sure I'm describing this correctly. Here's the story, I swapped a caliper out and I guess I didn't tighten the caliper bracket bolt enough and it backed out, the caliper caused the rear wheel to lock up. The wheel cracked, the rotor hat separated from the rest of the rotor and now it looks like the mounting ears for the caliper are bent too. I don't think I could bend them back, nor would it be safe.

Am I correct in assuming this requires the whole rear axle replacement?

If the mount is bent, I would replace. There's no way to trust that it won't crack off when force is applied (braking) and lead to a serious problem.

I don't remember 100% on this particular brake system but a great many have a separate part that is the carrier or bracket and is held with two bolts. This is different from the caliper bolts. It might also be called the brake slider.

mk3 said:

I don't remember 100% on this particular brake system but a great many have a separate part that is the carrier or bracket and is held with two bolts. This is different from the caliper bolts. It might also be called the brake slider.

Click to expand...

Slider pins are bent. I replaced those and the caliper carrier (or bracket). It's the mounting ears for the caliper carrier that are bent.

I agree with the above recommendations for replacing all the damaged parts. Better safe than sorry. Since sorry in this case might be sorry for damage to yourself and/or other lives as well as property, it just isn't worth it. You can't just bend stuff back and get it correct, let alone wondering about the compromised strength of the damaged parts.

Good luck,

PH

Can you show pictures of the problem? I am trying to visualize bent caliper mounting ears. That metal is cast and tends to break rather than bend.

I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow.

I uploaded some pics of the carnage here:
https://imgur.com/gallery/QAO2zsS

Hope that works for ya.

Those are brand new bolts by the way. Not the ones that were on the car obviously.

Oh and I priced out a new axle beam. Only $348 Canadian from the dealer (about $257 US). No bushings but I already have those. I ordered new bearings and axle stubs from the good folks at idparts. And the bushing tool too. Figured it'll save me from removing the old bushing and a trip to the pick n pull.

PSA: learn from my mistake and check your work. One forgotten bolt cost me a rotor, wheel and an axle.

Yowch. At least you were able to maintain control of your car.

I did get a bit of wheel hop. Luckily the roads were wet and I was 500 feet from home and I dragged the wheel the rest of the way home.

I'd have gone with used and put new bushings in it. You'll need to get the ABS sensors too, those probably won't come out in 1 piece.

Good luck, glad no one got hurt.

Me myself on my own car, I'd bend it back without a second thought
it is ordinary mild steel with no heat treat applied, so if you've got an oxy/fuel torch you can get it nice and orange to make bending it back easier

[486] said:

Me myself on my own car, I'd bend it back without a second thought
it is ordinary mild steel with no heat treat applied, so if you've got an oxy/fuel torch you can get it nice and orange to make bending it back easier

Click to expand...

I was under the impression it was worse. I'd probably try to gently bend it too but only with heat. I wouldn't do it cold. Look for any crack formation.

[486] said:

Me myself on my own car, I'd bend it back without a second thought
it is ordinary mild steel with no heat treat applied, so if you've got an oxy/fuel torch you can get it nice and orange to make bending it back easier

Click to expand...

That was my first thought but the bearing might not like the heat.

Smokin' Dually said:

That was my first thought but the bearing might not like the heat.

Click to expand...

thus the ox/fuel
would get the tab red well before the rest of the flange got too hot, much less the spindle, much less the bearing itself

Smokin' Dually said:

I'd have gone with used and put new bushings in it. You'll need to get the ABS sensors too, those probably won't come out in 1 piece.

Click to expand...

If the weather was better I'd go to a scrap yard and pull a used one but its supposed to rain a ton here on the weekend and even possible snow. So typical, nice during the week and **** on the weekend.

I did order 2 new ABS sensors. I know there impossible to get out of the old axle without destroying them.

I've got the old axle almost out, just need to disconnect the hard brake lines. It's actually not that bad of a job. From the sounds of it the only hard part of the job is getting the old bushings out and I'm skipping that step.

Posted this in another thread but I thought I re-post it here and help someone else in the future:
added some videos to Youtube to possibly help others:
Part 1 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wJ--bRy4hOo
Part 2 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBmTsHGZad0
Part 3 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ByoRvAy4s8

Part 3 shows you how to set up the idparts axle bushing tool. It took me more time to figure out how to use the tool than I actually spent using it. So it might help you to look at video 3 first.

The axle bushings are easy, I can do them in under an hour each side.
Sawzall the old bushing then use a pneumatic air chisel to remove it, under 15 minutes.
( All HF tools ).
I have a axle bearing installation tool that a member here made that I bought, made installation very easy.
Before that I used wooden blocks notched to match the bearing lip.
All work done with beam still installed on car. Just my .02.

For anybody doing this same job in the future, it might be wise to order a pair of lower spring seats, the spring top buffer (that's what idparts calls it anyway) and new bolts for the shock (the bottom one).

I forgot the springs seats and realized after I got the car back together. I spent 30 seconds trying to chisel the old ones off the old axle beam but it doesn't look like they'll come off without being damaged and new ones are cheap ($9USD from idparts and $6.40CND from Roseland here in Canada).

It's probably a good time to replace the brake lines too, both the short ones by the axle and the longer ones going to the caliper. I'd avoid the Sunsong brand though as they interfere with the caliper pin bolts so you can't get a socket on them.