what i did for the rears, i put quite a bit of pb blaster in where the wheel studs come out. and let it soak in on all sides of the bolt hole, under the hat, be liberal with it, but don't get ridiculous with it. next i put on two lug nuts and tightened them just about snugly and that broke the rotor free from the backing.

what i did to prevent this in the future is to sand the inside of the rotor where it meets the hub, the hub flange, the outside of the rotor hat and the inside of the wheel and put a thin film of synthetic grease and put it all back.

i haven't had to do the fronts yet because they're not warped and i really felt the wheel bearings were good and tight and spun well. i'll do them in a year or so, but the gentleman who suggested to put a threaded stud in the rotor mounting threads is a great idea.

 

Mine came off easy. You may have to back off on the parking brake shoes. Do a search to find out which way to turn the adjuster star...

 

Just did my front brakes the other night, was going to use the bolt method but found out I didn't have any bolts the right size. Then the light bulb came on, got out my bearing puller set and took just the cross part and the puller bolt. This was just the right size to go between the holes for the caliper bracket, and let me use a small piece of 1/4" steel to spread the force @ the rotor. Couple shots of penetrating oil, tightened up the puller bolt, and a couple whacks with a hammer and the rotor popped right off, finished the whole job in about an hour counting the test drive. Thank God for this forum, without the idea for the bolts I'd probably still be beating the poor thing.

 

i just don't know guys, unless you are not using the rotors again, i would NOT hit them with any metal hammers and definitely no sledges. penetrating oil and a puller is a good idea. i had success with penetrating oil and tightening two lugnuts on the rotor (with the wheel off of course) and found that to break the galvanic connection. then again, i don't like where it snows and road salt and all that, although i do live at the beach and the air is salty all year long, i did have to deal with this problem for the rears.

 

While realizing more and more that common sense isn't that common, I do think it goes without saying that the rotors being slammed, sledgehammered, and bludgeoned off are not ones that folks are planning to use again.

 

you'd be dead wrong to assume that.

 

And you know this how? I don't believe I've seen a single person here asking how to put dented and smashed rotors back into service.

 

Well, right there is the magic: you had success, and others didn't. After soaking the rotors for hours with all the anti-seize liquids and anti-rust and oils for 6 hours -- I had to cut bait and cut off the rotors!
At that diameter, and this serious problem, gear pullers don't do much... besides it gets to be dangerous when you see the rotor arched like steel, and still won't move ;-).

You can slice them off quite easily -- messy job though having to remove all that material....

 

On the second Rotor, took 5 minutes and two whacks with the cold chisel in the cut made by the sawzall. No mess, no stress, little time.

 

Remove wheel, Beat on it with a small hammer, swear, get a beer and a bigger hammer, beat on it with a bigger hammer, swear more, get another beer and the propane torch, heat it up and beat on it with the biggest hammer you have, kick it and swear at it a few times, go get cutting torch and another beer, get it as hot as you can, swear and hit it as hard as you can with a sledgehammer.

Replace brakes, or is that breaks?...

In all seriousness, it took an oxy-acetylene torch to heat up the rotors on my 99 Expedition enough to get the rotors off, along with lots of swearing.

 

I had the same issue, inener pad worn more ('97 4x4 EB Expy). This is usually a result of the caliper/pads not sliding well, but there was another issue - one part of the inner pad was more worn than another, which means one of the two caliper's pistons was getting stuck. I checked with the caliper off the car and my son hitting the brake pedal and sure enough, only one piston would respond.

So in addition to pads, I went ahead and replaced calipers (rebuilt units) and rotors (new NAPA parts). I was at 166K and figured it was time. They were surpringly cheap ($75 for both front rotors, and about $120 for both of the calipers). I plan to go back and replace the brake hoses too. Not as cheap, but hey it's cheap "insurance".

Also, regarding stuck rotors, I remember many vehicles I've owned had threaded holes through which you drove bolts, in a similar fashion to the original post above, to free up rotors. Too bad those holes arent provided for as a standard design feature. Since I was replacing my rotors anyway, I just banged the heck out of them with my 2-pound sledge until they gave way...

 

I just did a brake upgrade on my '96 and I didn't have the bolt holes in my rotors. I worked for 3 days to get my all 4 of my rotors off with no success. I kept hearing out good PB Blaster is, so I went out and got a can. Less than 15 minutes after I put it on I was able to beat each rotor off with a 10 lb sledge.

REAL point of this story ... Since I upgraded to some nice slotted rotors (which I LOVE) and I don't want to destroy them if I have to remove them, I used anti-seze compound (yes, the grey stuff you put on spark plugs) on both the hub and back of the rotors. Even if I get the rotors wet, they shouldn't rust ever! I've used this trick on other cars with promising results.

 

Sorry to bring this old thread back but where did you get your rebuilt calipers at for $75? Reason I ask is I think I have a sticking caliper in the front. If I have to agressively stop (not slowly/gentally coming to a stop) as soon as I let up off the brake peddle I can feel a slight pop/thud come from the front.

Shane

 

GOt 'em from "Gray Line" auto parts, a large independent (I think) auto parts store near I-95 and I-295 near Richmond, VA. I think Advance had 'em even cheaper, but I didn't want to to trust Advance. It was a Sunday morning, so my options were limited....

 

just changed my front rotors today banged on them for about 3 hrs. gave up
and went an bought a 7``angle grinder and cut them down to the hub about
a 1/4 inch before the hub. cut it like a piece of pie then wacked it with the
4 lb. sledge hammer. after a few good whacks it became loose an d fell off