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oldtimer57.
What is the torque setting on the bolts for attaching calipers to the trailer? Should red or blue loctite be used?
Blue thread locker, NOT red. You do want to be able to remove em without a torch.I believe the bolts are 55 ft-lbs.
[attachment=0]Screenshot_20170905-163000.png[/attachmentI found this old post
Interesting. I just put two new calipers on a few months ago. CAME with blue thread locker on the bolts. The bolts go into the caliper quite a way. Id hate to try to remove em with red thread locker on em. A torch would probably wreck the seals + boil the fluid…
OT. I put pads on last yr. Those bolts were so tight all the way out. I was afraid they were gona break! I actually thought they were a taperlock bolt. In fact i believe i posted and ask bcb of they were. They replied No! But mine had the red loctite.
Was your boat new when you bought it or used? IE red from factory or from last owner? When I ordered my calipers and actuator from Allan, they came with new bolts. With blue thread locker already on the threads.Heres a direct quote from the UFP DB-35 documentation: Properly torqueing these bolts to 55 foot pounds and using Loctite 242 or equivalent thread locking compound on the threads is extremely important. The bolts come pre-patched with locking compound on them, but UFP strongly recommends liquid Loctite be applied to them (and all reused fasteners) immediately prior to their installation. Start the two bolts by hand to be sure they are not cross threaded, then tighten them fairly quickly to the 55 foot pound torque. Don’t stop too long in the middle of tightening, or alternate tightening the bolts little by little, because if there is a long delay in seating the bolts, the locktite will cure prematurely and you will hit the 55 foot pounds torque setting before the bolt head is solidly seated against the brake flange. To FURTHER complicate this, they show two types of bolts. Hex head that appear to be zinc-coated with RED thread locker on em, and socket-head bolts that are black, with BLUE thread locker on em. Of course, when I opened MINE, I found the hex head bolts (not socket head) with BLUE thread locker. A tad contradictory, to say the least. However, that being said, mine, with 242 on em were damned near impossible to remove. Had to use a 24″ ratchet to pull em out to reduce the effort to something reasonable. No idea how hard the red would make this.I can tell you that previous owner was lax in doing this. One of the bolts apparently backed out with him and then chattered a lot wearing the mounting hole in the axle significantly. When I replaced them, I put both on the opposite side of the axle to have correct-sized holes. So far, they have not loosened one scintilla.
Mine is a 13 and was purchased by me in latter part of 14. Very low hours. Was mine factory pads? Im almost certian. Can i say for sure? Well they was short period of time i was not in ownership. When i replaced my i had a uneven wear pattern that i was investigating. And went ahead and replaced while i was there. A socket and 18 inch rachet was used to remove the bolt. As far as the threadlocker i used. mine wasnt red or blue. I used a product we use on my job and i have alot of confidence in it. So in the end who knows. I just new it was reccomended a threadlocker be used so i didLast edited by Redngoo on September 6th, 2017, 4:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
UFP has oscillated on both red and blue Loktite and the older calipers like OT57 has should be RED Loktite. BCB
Heres my take on this. My boat uses the DB-35 calipers from UFP. The two bolts that go through the axle flange into the caliper to hold it on the trailer engage the caliper for MANY threads. Id guess it goes in at least 1/2″ if not further. Even blue thread-locker makes it TOUGH to extract those bolts later. I used a big cheater-bar type ratchet and those bolts fought all the way out. As I mentioned, I replaced the entire caliper assembly on both sides due to rust and inattention by previous owner. Ordered em from Allan. The online UFP docs show two silver bolts (6 point) with RED thread locker on em. The calipers came with two silver bolts (6 point) with BLUE thread locker. I found the blue to be more than enough of a challenge to remove, I suspect that once they are torqued to 55 ft-lbs (with liquid loctite 242 added as per instructions) they are not going to loosen under normal conditions. Only thing to watch for, per the instructions, is to not delay with the torque wrench so that one bolt can cure before proper torque is reached. It takes a little time (for me) to crank the bolts down. Not a lot of room. They recommend alternating tightening to prevent the early cure problem.If you bought a used boat, carefully check the flange on the axle. The holes ought to be a good fit for the bolts. If there is a lot of slop, consider mounting the caliper on the other side of the axle. This is mildly problematic with bleeding, as now the bleed screw is not quite the high point on the caliper. But with a little imagination, a piece of wood between the pads, you can do it pretty easily. Thats the nice thing about those axle flanges with 4 bolt holes, you have two that are probably brand new if one gets wallowed out due to an overlooked loose bolt.
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