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Put your car on landscape tiimber pieces so that it cannot possible fall, and take the tire off. I don't personally trust jackstands anymore, and if the ground is soft even landscape timbers can roll and drop the car. Chock the opposite wheel against rolling.
96 Thunderbird bolts should be american sizes. The best sockets to grip a stuck bolt have drilled out points so that they don't touch the 6 points of the bolt. There are two quality tool brands I know of that have this feature- Chicago Pneumatic made in Taiwan, and Proto made in the USA. The better of these sockets are black to withstand high impact. Also, while you are buying things, buy a propane torch and 14 oz propane canister. If you have a place to buy a spray can of aero-kram penetrating oil, that is the best as it is an ester oil, otherwise get a spray can of liquid wrench or WD40. Get a breaker bar in the size of your new sockets, they stand more abuse than a ratchet wrench, at least 12" long. Get a 3 lb. sledge hammer and a small ball peen hammer. Wear safety glasses. Put the socket on the bolt in such a way that the handle of the breaker bar will be easy to hit counter clockwise.You may need a 2" extension. Sometimes you have to turn the socket 90 degrees on the breaker bar for this to happen. Heat around the bolt with the torch (not in a garage with gasoline open in cans or a parts washer) for two minutes. Spray the bolt with penetrating oil. Push on the back of the breaker bar right behind the socket with the small hammer head. Hit the breaker bar as hard as you can with the 3 lb hammer. It either broke loose, or it didn't. If you have access to compressed air and a 450 ft lb minimum strength impact wrench, that would be better than the above method using the drilled point black sockets, but the cheap air impact wrenches sold at harbor freight and big lots are inferior to the hammer-breaker bar method. Use your impact wrench, if you have one, on the maximum force setting. Notice harbor freight rates their wrenches in "maximum" torque, which is a completely useless rating.
If you break the head of the bolt off, buy a 1/4" left hand drill for your reversible drill motor. Grind the end of the bolt flat with a 3" dia wheel (use safety glasses), center punch a dot, and drill a hole left handed. When you get about 3/8" in, stop and heat around the bolt. Spray oil again. Then put the left hand drill in again, start spinning, pull sideways some to make the drill grab the bolt. Sometimes this will spin a bolt out, and will usually works better than "easy-outs" in my experience. If that doesn't work, buy a tap of the proper size and thread, get the proper size drill as shown on the tap, drill the bolt out that size, and re-tap it using a tap handle.
This post has been edited by Indianajo: Dec 7 2009, 02:01 PM
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Remove Stripping Brake Caliper Bolt., Front caliper bolt is trying to strip out.
Dec 6 2009, 05:13 PM
