stripped rear brake bracket

[jtk1531]

sent my bike to have the rear tyre replaced at the bike shop, and i came home with stripped threads on the rear brake bracket...
the mechanic was using an air impact gun for all the screws and axle nut while reassembling the rear wheel, and i thought i'd better retorque everything with a torque wrench.
sure enough, when i retorque the rear brake caliper onto the bracket, the thread from the bracket stripped off. now my rear brake has one screw properly threaded in, and another screw with maybe 1/3 the thread.

ordering the rear brake bracket would take probably 2 weeks around here. would it be safer if i removed the rear brake caliper from the bike completely? i still need to use the bike as a daily commuter. linked-brakes might still cause the rear brake to engage even if i use front brakes only.

[Conrad]

What did your 'mechanic' have to say about this when you brought it to his attention?

[jtk1531]

What did your 'mechanic' have to say about this when you brought it to his attention?

if the thread got stripped right in front of his face, maybe he'll admit it's his fault.
anyway, the thread stripped out when i was retorquing it back on a saturday evening. too late to go back to the shop, and i doubt they have any replacements for the bracket on hand.
now i'm just trying to figure out if i can ride around with 1 and 1/3 thread (2 bolts) on the rear brake while i wait for parts to arrive. worst case scenario, i would have to remove the rear brake caliper or introduce air into the system to disable it.
really wish there's an off-switch for the linked-brakes right now.

[Conrad]

I'd leave the caliper on the bike but refrain from using the rear brake till you get the replacement.

[gPink]

The 'mechanic', and I use the term loosely, needs to be beaten about the head and shoulders with the impact wrench. There is absolutely no reason for this on a motorcycle. None.

[jtk1531]

yeah... thank god i didn't get my front tyre changed at the same place. i can imagine what could've happened to the fork pinch bolts.

[JerBear]

yeah... thank god i didn't get my front tyre changed at the same place. i can imagine what could've happened to the fork pinch bolts.

I don't have to imagine that. When I took my front tire off to take it to the dealer to have a new one put on I had to order all 4 pinch bolts because the gorilla that put the previous owners tire on stripped the head on two of them.  $11 for 4 stupid bolts

[JerBear]

The 'mechanic', and I use the term loosely, needs to be beaten about the head and shoulders with the impact wrench. There is absolutely no reason for this on a motorcycle. None.

Now you guys got me going!  Smote repeatedly about the head and shoulders I say! They use an impact wrench to speed up the jobs, not to save their customers any money but to make more without regard to what it does to our equipment.  I was quoted 90 dollars to install a Throttlemeister earlier this week.  I told the guy he was nuts!  A blind man looking the other way could do it in five minutes. I was just going to have them put it on when I came to pick it up but I'll do it myself in their parking lot.  If they had told me 10 bucks I would have let them make the money.

[B.D.F.]

Those bolts serve much more as shear devices than retaining devices so you would probably be OK riding the bike as you describe it, especially if you take it easy on the brakes until the part is repaired or replaced.

You can get a Heli Coil or similar thread repair locally and restore the brake to 100% function if you want. I understand that this is not your fault but repairing the bracket will probably be much faster than waiting for the new bracket. The strength of a properly restored thread will be greater than the strength of the original thread in the cast aluminum so the repair would be reliable.

There probably is not enough room but can you fit a nut behind the bracket and then use a longer bolt to go right through the bracket and into the nut? That would serve as a very good temporary measure I think and would cost very little in time or money.

Brian

sent my bike to have the rear tyre replaced at the bike shop, and i came home with stripped threads on the rear brake bracket...
the mechanic was using an air impact gun for all the screws and axle nut while reassembling the rear wheel, and i thought i'd better retorque everything with a torque wrench.
sure enough, when i retorque the rear brake caliper onto the bracket, the thread from the bracket stripped off. now my rear brake has one screw properly threaded in, and another screw with maybe 1/3 the thread.

ordering the rear brake bracket would take probably 2 weeks around here. would it be safer if i removed the rear brake caliper from the bike completely? i still need to use the bike as a daily commuter. linked-brakes might still cause the rear brake to engage even if i use front brakes only.

[jtk1531]

there's about 4mm of clearance between the back of the bracket and the disc itself, i was thinking of using a "nutsert" or something similar that i can do myself. now i need to find one in M8 size...

for the time being, i've coated the bolt (with 1/3 thread) full of threadlock and added a zip tie around it.

[jtk1531]

There probably is not enough room but can you fit a nut behind the bracket and then use a longer bolt to go right through the bracket and into the nut? That would serve as a very good temporary measure I think and would cost very little in time or money.

thinking more about what you mentioned, i'll try the reverse.
have to find (or grind) an M8 bolt with head-height less than 4 mm, and fit it from behind the bracket. then use a nut to lock it down from the caliper end. bolt length won't be too much of an issue then.

just ordered the bracket from kawasaki, takes 3 weeks to reach here. guess i have plenty of time to get the bolt and schedule some workshop-time at my friend's place.

[gPink]

Not going to take it back to the dealer? 

[wendel]

Care to identify the shop and mechanic so other unfortunate customers do not get the same treatment?

[jtk1531]

i won't be taking it back to the dealer, it'll probably end up in arguments/denial, especially since i brought the bike home before i found the problem.

i wouldn't want to name the shop. statements made on the internet have a way of staying around for a long time, wouldn't be fair to the shop owner who has been giving me top notch customer service and bike/parts prices. bought 2 of my bikes from the owner as well.
the workshop itself is just not the kind of place you bring your bike in for serious mechanical work, i've only brought my bike there for tyre changes. (and they still managed to screw up)

besides, i'm in a different country from most of you guys. and if you are from the same country as me, please recommend me a trustworthy workshop!
i haven't seen a torque wrench being used in any bike workshop yet, maybe it's a sign of weakness to be seen using one.

[B.D.F.]

That will work fine too, in fact it could be left that way forever although it would be somewhat more difficult to take the rear wheel off. The upside is that in the future should a ham- fisted mechanic overtorque those same bolts it would only strip the nut or bolt and not part of the motorcycle.

Just be sure you can slide the entire length of the bolt backwards out of the brake caliper far enough to remove the caliper from the retaining bracket.

Brian

thinking more about what you mentioned, i'll try the reverse.
have to find (or grind) an M8 bolt with head-height less than 4 mm, and fit it from behind the bracket. then use a nut to lock it down from the caliper end. bolt length won't be too much of an issue then.

just ordered the bracket from kawasaki, takes 3 weeks to reach here. guess i have plenty of time to get the bolt and schedule some workshop-time at my friend's place.