My brakes were fine until I was running along one night at about 75 and had to slam on the brakes for a couple hundred feet while I ran off into 4 feet of water across the road. The 4 wheel drive came in handy that night, LOL. I guess it warped the front rotors because I get the shake and brake now.

Do I have to pull the automatic locking hubs to remove the rotors to have them turned? I have not pulled off the wheels to look at this stuff. I did read my Chiltons(a few times) and it was about as clear as mud. It just says pull the wheel, pull the hub and rotor which I assume it is talking about the rotor hub and not the automatic locking hub. Its a 93 Bronco 4 x 4 with automatic locking hubs.

 

Yep, if you wanna avoid confusion let's refer to the locking hubs as lockouts, while the wheel bearing hub is the hub. You'll have to remove the lockout and associated pieces, then locknut, washer and adj nut from spindle. Then remove the caliper, and the rotor/hub will pull off as one. Most machine shops actually prefer the hub to be installed for turning the rotors, so I wouldn't separate them. See this, it'll help some:
http://www.off-road.com/ford/bigbron...balljoint.html

 

Also be prepared to buy new rotors, as you may not have enough rotor left to turn. Just a warning, they are close to $100 a side.

 

Did I read correctly that those lock nuts have 160 to 200 foot pounds of torque on them? Good grief.

 

You should pre-load the bearings by tightening the inner nut to 90lbs. Back it off and retorque to 50 lbs. install the lock washer. tighten the outer nut to 150 lbs.

 

Would you believe that the brake place wanted $400 + parts to turn my rotors and install new pads? They tried to quote me the "standard labor rates book" line. Fortunately I have some friends that own a shop. They will give me a space and guide me through pulling the hubs and rotors if I get into trouble with it. We can turn them there at their place, repack the bearings and put it all back together. I already bought new pads. Those ran me $20.

I have come across the rotors are shot line before on a few occasions. A brake place tried that on me with my 94 4 wheel disc car. I made them take a mic out there and show me the margins. Then suddenly as if by magic the shop manager decided all the rotors could be turned and saved. These were bimetal performance type rotors and not cheap. I would guess that probably 80 percent of the time the old rotors can be turned. In some cases if they are getting close to the minimal margins it requires taking 2 or 3 very shallow cuts across them taking just enough off until they true up. About the only time the rotors are completely shot on a vehicle this new is if the pads have worn down to the metal and its been run that way. The situation is that the the shop person gets a cut off the sale of new parts so it turns out that everybody needs new rotors and then of course new inner and outer bearings and new seals, new pads, new calipers, new caliper kits. Suddenly a $50 job turns into $500.

Theres a national epidemic of mechanic scamming going on in this country and it starts at the dealerships and it includes the standard labor rates book. The book supposedly called for $300 labor on a heater core install on my Bronco. It took me an hour and cost me a total of $45. Thats a whopping labor rate there for an hour job.

 

I am happy to report that my rotors are turned with new pads and my Bronco stops as smooth as glass now. The rotors weren't warped all that bad and both of them saved. I kept close track of my time. The total job including having to go to the parts store and having to wait on my friend to turn my rotors was 3 hours 15 minutes. I was a little slow on the first one because I had never seen the guts of a locking hub on a 4 wheel drive before. No way should that take $400 worth of labor in my book.