tooled up?!

abettertomorrow said:

maybe i'm old fashioned and thought i had enough tools but now i'm stuck - what are these new bolt heads - my 87 110 has them holding brake calipers on and swivel to axle - consequently I can't change my swivel oil seals.
thought i'd crack it this weekend but can't even get the brakes off.
what sets do i need - looks like a spanner job on the axles as no space for socket depth?! sockets for caliped as no spanner access
sh#t.
can i get these sets from halfrauds/ECP?!
another weekend gone

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Brown said:

If you buy new ones they tend to have as dollop of congealed thread locking compound on them. They're likely to be a bit stiff to undo as a result of having not been moved for a number of years, and all the Loctite or whatever it is. With the ball to axle casing ones I found a flat ring spanner and a few taps with a hammer got them going and then a ratchet ring spanner to spin them out was the quickest way. I was lucky and all mine shifted. Sometimes people are reduced to grinding the heads off. Or even cutting up the ball itself if they're intending to replace it. So in answer to your question, yes they're 'glued in'. It would be hard to get a torque wrench onto the ball to axle bolts because the ball's in the way.

As James says, a 1/2" imperial socket can usually be hammered onto the calliper bolts and is less likely to strip the splines off them than a metric equivalent. In addition, some people find the Irwin Bolt Grip sockets with their internal spiral flutes very useful on these, because they're recessed and there's not much room to get tools on them otherwise.

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