Ford Van Brake Caliper Challenge Revisited

On Saturday I tackled removing the broken e-z out from the steering knuckle on my 1979 Ford van and was successful in removing the offending hardened tool piece. I took my time and gingerly ground out an access area with my Dremel tool (after reading about the process on the Internet). With some persuasion from a hammer and drift I was able to extract the piece with a pair of pliers. I re-drilled the hole and ran a tap into the hole and created new threads. The first 1/8 to 3/16 of the hole is damaged from the e-z out extraction but there is still about 5/16 of an inch of threads available for the bolt and with a torque value of 17ft pounds I am sure the treads are adequate for the bolt tightening..To be on the safe side I applied some JB Weld to the opening and created additional material for threading. The bolt is now securely housed and given it is just a "stop" for the sliding caliper bracket I am comfortable the fix is "fit for purpose" I will examine the bolt for tightness once I have a few kilometers on the vehicle. I figure my "bolt breaking" fubar took 4 hours to correct and cost me $30 (including the cost of the broken e-z out) to remedy. All  avoidable if I had taken some time to "evaluate" the situation to determine my next steps before blindly proceeding in a "forceful" way..a good lesson learned on many fronts...

First Day of Summer-Update

My Triumph project has stalled..earlier in the week I contemplated how "best" to move the project along? After careful consideration I determined the next step should be to move back to finishing off the body work while the weather is more conducive to the task...I have a few higher priority tasks outside of working on the Triumph which I hope to finish off in the next few days...then hopefully I will return to my long abandoned project and start making progress....

Recently I listed my '57 body on Kijjiji and had no takers but lots of "hits". I figured I was sitting on a treasure trove of desirable parts but that does not seem to be the case?? I withdrew the listing after a couple of weeks to rethink my marketing approach...

Automotive Fubar-Broken Bolt

Earlier this week I over tightened a bolt and broke it off. I should have known better and backed away from applying a bit more pressure to "seat" the bolt tighter when it wasn't really necessary. I had actually stopped to assess the situation at one point because what I was experiencing tightening the bolt didn't seem to make sense..I removed the bolt-compared it to the original and reinstalled it. Rather than go back into the house and grab the repair manual to check torque values I pushed ahead and suffered the consequences... After breaking off the bolt and I went out an bought an easyout tool that also broke off when I went to extract the remains. In retrospect it was a mistake to buy a cheap easyout which further compounded the problem. I now have a major mechanical issue to resolve that could have been avoided for sure....


This is not a Triumph story but a Ford one.I own a 1979 Ford Camper van. It has been in the family since the early 1990's. Lots of great camping memories come with the vehicle. In 2009 my wife and I drove the van 5000 kilometers from Canada to the Oregon coast. The van required some mechanical prep to bring it up to travel standard and it performed well only requiring a fan belt adjustment while on the road...

About a week ago we decided to take the van on an excursion for 10 days or so. This decision required I do some pre-work and bring the van up to travel standards again. One thing that needed repair was the front brake calipers. The plungers weren't operating properly and the calipers needed to be replaced. I went to the auto parts store and bought everything I needed. Things went fairly well until the last bolt was to be installed.

The series of events have provided a valuable lesson for me. In fact multiple lessons on a whole bunch of different levels.