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2013 iron 883 here. Here's my situation. I have a rear caliper that the mounting bolt was cross threaded when I was installing new tires. I know, I know, you don't need to remove the caliper do that but I unscrewed it by accident and apparently cross threaded it. So my rear brakes don't fully engage as they're off alignment.
I took it into the dealership and they want to replace the whole caliper. Said cross threaded caliper can't be tapped because it is a casted part... Charged me $140 for the inspection and want another $500 to fix it.
Can this be fixed without new caliper? What would you do here.
If I was in your situation I'd rethread the caliper using a helicoil, an M10 x 1.5 pitch helicoil kit will cost about $35, it will contain a dozen stainless steel helicoil inserts, a drill bit, an over sized tap and an insertion tool. A helicoil will do an excellent repair job.
Depending on how bad things are I don't see why you can't get the bolt to go in straight again. If you can achieve the spec torque then it would clearly be holding as it should. Nothing lost to try that first.
After that as above with insert followed by a new caliper.
Last edited by Andy from Sandy; Jul 20, 2023 at 08:42 AM.
In future cleaning the threads of bolts and holes most fasteners can be done up by hand a long way and it ought to be very obvious if it has not been put on properly or in properly. Using a wrench or socket or power tool from the get go is not good practice in my opinion.
Dealerships are not big on repair, they are big on new parts, not just Harley Dealers but any new vehicle dealer.
If you are not comfortable doing this work yourself (no shame in that), I suggest you find an independent shop that might be more accommodating than a dealer.
An automotive machine shop will handle this job easily if you hand them the caliper.
Thanks all, I'm just returning home and about to dig into this a little more now. I was told that since the part is casted that the part can not be drilled and rethreaded or have a helicoil put into it. Is there any truth in this?
I can't reset the caliper now because it is cross threaded. So I did already try to do the caliper alignment as shown in the video @1HD1C thanks for finding that video though.
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Rear brake caliper issues - help
