Three hours to swap a single brake on a Liebherr LTM 1050...

I spent 3 hours yesterday fighting a brake caliper bolt that was seized on a 1998 Liebherr LTM 1050. The manual said 20 minutes max, but that bolt laughed at my impact wrench. Has anyone else run into rusted bolts on older cranes that just refuse to budge?

2 comments

2 Comments

val_wilson9d agoMost Upvoted

Three hours to swap a single brake" on a LTM 1050? Man, that hurts just reading it. I've been there with a seized caliper bolt on a 2001 Grove, and I think my impact wrench gave up and started crying. Those old Liebherr cranes are built like tanks, but the bolts seem to weld themselves in place after a few years of salt and grime. Did you try the torch trick or just beat on it until it gave in? I ended up having to drill one out once, swore at it for two days straight.

leo_lopez8d ago

Whoa hold on... you sure that was a Grove? I thought Grove didn't make a 2001 model, maybe you're thinking of a different year or a different brand? The 2001 Grove cranes I've seen are pretty rare, mostly they switched to the TMS series around then. Anyway, yeah, three hours sounds about right for a seized caliper bolt on a Liebherr. I had a 1050-3.1 a few years back and one of the caliper bolts just snapped clean off, no warning. Tried the torch, tried penetrating oil, ended up having to weld a nut onto the broken stud and pray it held. Took me like four hours and a lot of bad words...