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Freakin rotors

PaintChips97

PaintChips97

New member
I went to go redo my brakes the other day, the car has been parked for a while and they always ground fairly badly, I decided just to bite the bullet and do new pads and rotors all around rather than try to figure out exactly what needed to be replaced (the rears turned out to be fairly decent, but oh well), and I even did the 06+ dual piston Impala upgrade up front. Anyway, while I was waiting on the calipers for the front, I did the rears. The passenger side rotor refused to come off! WD40, a pry bar and a brass hammer didn't get that thing to budge. I ended up using a 3 jaw gear puller on it, and after a lot of trying, POW! It came off all at once, damn near deafening me in the process. The driver's side came apart fine. Fast forward 2 days, I go to do the fronts, and both of them were rusted onto the car! The passenger side was the same deal as the rear, but I actually had to wedge a pry bar between the rotor and the puller to keep the axle from spinning and I had to stomp the breaker bar to tighten the puller any further. When it broke free, it actually flew off of the hub. Yaaaaaay for rusty ****.
 


i learned a trick this last weekend doing my wife's brakes that've not been changed yet on her 85k mile 09 jeep liberty.

get a bolt, a washer (or two) and a nut. thread the bolt into the nut/washer THROUGH the holes that hold the caliper bracket to the hub. use a couple wrenches to tighten the bolt up against the rotor and it'll push it off. boom, done. took me 5 minutes for both sides.

took me 45 minutes to figure that out, though.
 
i made sure to lube everything up before it went back together for whoever does it next. i don't think we'll have the vehicle for another front rotor change...
 
It's lubed up, I'm not worried about next time. I guess I'm lucky the car was more neglected than abused, I guess. I'd rather have trouble with this stuff and have a trans that shifts like it's new than the other way around
 


CrazyBob03 said:
A little anti-seize or brake lube on the wheel hub and you won't have beat off rotors anymore
Click to expand...
NO NO NO NO NEVER NEVER NO NO NO.

Your wheel is driven by the friction between the hub and the center of the wheel. If you put lube here, it's like lubricating the frictions of a clutch - it will slide.

Your lug nuts act like the spring of a clutch assembly, holding the wheel against the hub. If there is lubrication on these surface of the hub, the wheel will try to spin and your lug nuts will shear.

And please don't listen to the people who say "I did this but never had any trouble". Those surfaces are meant to be DRY and UNLUBRICATED.

If you want them to come off easier in the future, just grind down the surface rust so they don't bond together so fiercely. But NO LUBE.
 
right in the middle where the hub bore of the rotor meets the hub bore of the hub is where you'd lube if you did. the entire face of the hub would be dumb.
 
You guys do a lot of beating off up there it sounds like, almost makes me appreciate the heat..

So Paint Chips,

2 days later and you are having the rotors rusted to the hub again? That's really odd. Did you wire brush around the hub before you put them back on? We have really high humidity, so much so that the rotors will show a little rust overnight. I realize we don't deal with salt, but that's just odd.

Jeff
 
Reminds me of front drums... unscrew hub nut, drop hub/drum unit squarely on face from about a foot high to seperate. That hub face is a good place to skip paint, as well. Glad that for all that heave-ho theres no more damage than maybe ringing ears, Paintchips.
 


No, I did the rears separate from the fronts, I bought the rotors and pads all at once from AutoZone (which reminds me of a post I need to write in the rant forum), I had to wait for my calipers to come in the mail from RockAuto. That was the 2 day gap, I'm assuming my rotors aren't already rusted, lol. And yeah, I know the feeling. Dropped the starter on my face working on dad's '62 chevy shortbed, definitely didn't feel good
 
I hate when a northern car comes into the shop. End up a with pile of rust bits all over the floor from beating parts off from being rusted shut
 


I'm so glad I don't have to deal with that salt, after seeing a lot of the pics of brake lines and such it's no wonder why everyone always wants Texas, New Mexico and Arizona cars.

Jeff
 
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