I had what could have been a dangerous incident occur on my '81. Driving the car and everything was good. I had the car parked and went to back out of the spot and noticed it was really difficult to back up. I gave it was little gas and was able to reverse a couple of feet but something felt 'stuck'. When I went forward again everything seemed fine but I drove home carefully.

Jacked the car up when I got home and took the wheel off to see what was going on. Turns out that the caliper bracket holder top bolt had come off and the caliper was essentially pivoting on the bottom bolt only. I guess putting it in reverse shifted the caliper back and caused it to get stuck on the wheel. Luckily I found the bolt in the bottom control arm area and was able to put it back in and torque it down. Also luckily I caused no damage to either the caliper or the wheel. Phew!

I'm pretty sure I torqued down these bolts when I rebuilt all the brakes and suspension. I double checked all the other bolts on the other wheels as well and this one was the only one that was lose. I did do some painting of these components and I've heard that you have to be careful when painting an area where a bolt attaches and torques down.

I'm thinking I will probably ensure I sand down these areas where bolts are torqued and maybe a beginning of the season checking of various bolts torques should be in order for suspension and brake components.

Richard

I recently replaced a front hub and will usually put a dab of lock-tight blue on those caliper bracket bolt threads.