My Royalty Rotors were $450.00 for the four. Including the pads. I do not know what the powerslots cost. Unfortunately the place I bouhgt mine from went out of business.

I believe this company has some nice ones available. Yes, they are more expensive than what I paid, but I bought mine a year ago.

Brake Performance - Slotted and Drilled Brake Rotors

So, you might consider these as alternates.

 

Is this the ball joint tool I need to get or similar?
Pneumatic Tie Rod / Ball Joint Separator Kit (KDT41610)

 

Yup.

If you have a Kragens or Autozone close by, you can "rent" the tools there.

They make you buy the kit, then when you return it, they keep the tax from the sale, hence the term "rent".

IIRC, you'll use the middle sized pickle fork to drop the ball joint.

Stewart

 

I put on Brake Performance Front premium rotors and Hawk Pads and within 1000 miles, they are already warped! I had the Art Cryo rotors for over 60K before they began to warp and actually I let them go too far and started the metal to metal fun! Had a hard time getting the rotors from Brake Performance also and they lost the order and then forgot to send the free pads, which I did not use as I already had the Hawk Superduty's.

I have been reading these posts for brakes and seems on ongoing forever problem with no real solution. Seems for normal type rotors, NAPA is getting the nod for their premium rotors.....Powerslot Cryo's and also Art Cryo's. My Art's were blue and had small heat stress cracks in them, so figured that hard braking over the 60K took it's toll!

Likely will go back to Art again since I got 60K trouble free miles, but will make sure I change the pads at maybe 45K and rebed them for better life! Have to get the $$ together for this purchase though! In the meantime, having daily aggravation when stopping due to the very warped rotors now on the front!

 

Ok... I just purchased a 4hp 10Gal Air Compressor, hoses and everything to hook it up, I had some air tool from my previous set up.
I had a ball-joint tool already but I purchase a pneumatic one, got a set of air impact sockets to add to the others I had. Gonna purchase the balljoints tomorrow.

Is there anything else I might need, what is the hardest part about replacing the ball-joints on the 2wd?

Thanks!

 

I've replace my ball-joints solo in my garage, not bad at all. I think the hardest part was getting that little boot on the ball-joints. Took me a few hours but not a bad job, dunno why shops charge so much to replace them.


I have a question, after assembly the left side seem tighter than the right and its the lower ball-joint on the left side that is tight. Will that loosen up after awhile?

What is the torque specs for the lower ball-joints castle nut?

 

99ft lbs

Stewart

 

Re-torque them and all is good now. Thanks!

 

Yer welcome.



Stewart

 

I just joined and this is my first post. I have a 2004 Excursion Limited V-10 and last fall I installed the Power Slot rotors and Hawk pads. They have performed flawlessly to date. Bedding them in correctly is the key according to all the research I did prior.

 

I bedding them correctly and the were good for awhile but the sliding pins started sticking which led to the warped rotors.

All is good now! Including my Wandering.

 

I have bedded by the book in each case. How do you determine sticking pins? Mine seem to move freely and I take them apart, clean them and relube with high temp brake grease each time, so thinking I am not having this issue.....just can't seem to stop the warping after having to get down on them hard they seem to warp. Ticks me off everytime someone slams on their brakes and I have to mash on mine knowing I just heated up the rotors and caused them to warp.
Also am making sure the lugs are torqued at 165, so no idea what else would cause this. Thinking maybe this time around, I got bad rotors from the manuf. so as soon as I can, will maybe go with either Power Slot Cryo or Art Cryo.
However, I am wondering on folks that are getting the one's from NAPA, that are the higher quality rotors, if having really good luck with them, if anyone has put them on and had bad luck with them?

 

Your comments indicate your driving habits may be the most significant factor in your rotor warping problem. Maybe if you drove like you were pulling a big trailer all the time, you wouldn't have as many sudden stops. Do you live in the hills or mountains?

 

Be sure the lug nuts are torqued evenly and to the proper torque. I torque mine to 165 lbs-ft per the Ford maintenance manual in three increments: 50 lbs-ft, 100 lbs-ft and 165 lbs-ft. Also, make sure there is no rust accumulation between the hub and rotor. When I put my DAB rotors on, I sandblasted the hub area where the rotor makes contact.

DSMMH

 

I will say I do drive a little more aggressive than a soccer mom would! LOL.
But, no different than I have with my other trucks and not had this much of an issue. I carry a torque wrench and am an extremist when it comes to proper torque to 165 so I know that is not the issue. Also, there is no rust between as I clean and make sure it is a smooth surface. The rotors have a coating on them that prevents the rust and the mating surface on both are very clean.

One thing very interesting happened last week when I was coming home and all of a sudden, everyone locked them up again. This time, I had a surpise since I was changing lanes and was commited since I was trying to sqeeze in. Folks just don't let you get over nowdays. So I had to give the brakes all she had! She was heading for the tailend that I thought I was going to buy and all of a sudden, the last 20 feet or so, she dropped her nose and glued down to the pavement! Whew! Thank god for those hawks!

Now, I figured I just destroyed those rotors for sure, but guess what? They are now very smooth, don't seem to have any warp issue and brake much better.

Maybe I squeezed the warp out of 'em?

Anyhow, will see how they do over time now. Feels great to brake now and it seem smooth and normal! Go figure......